Mozilla's Open Innovation and New Challenges

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Though Mozilla’s open source model encouraged collaboration among the developer community and promoted innovation, some experts questioned its sustainability in the long run. They felt that free and open source software posed operational and security risks and sometimes led to technical failures due to difficulty in tracking the origin of the source code. Moreover, they opined that open source products were vulnerable to plagiarism. For instance, some extensions and add-ons in Firefox were copied by some major browser vendors as Mozilla did not patent these innovations feeling it was contrary to the organization’s open source policy...

In addition to the challenges just mentioned, Mozilla was concerned over the declining market share of its flagship browser. Firefox's market share was falling gradually. It dropped from 29.67% in April 2011 to 26.39% in October 2011. Some analysts felt that one of the biggest challenges for Mozilla was to maintain its market share amid tough competition from browsers like Chrome and Safari which were steadily gaining market share. According to them, Mozilla was threatened, particularly by the growing popularity of Chrome, which was quickly catching up with Firefox. According to StatCounter, in November 2011, Chrome surpassed Firefox in market share for the first time ever. Chrome had 25.69% global market share for November, while Firefox's market share was 25.23%. IE was still the dominant player in the market during that period with a 40.63% market share...

In May 2012, Chrome finally overtook IE to become the world's most used web browser. According to data from StatCounter, Chrome's market share rose to 32.8% in the week ending May 20, 2012, while IE's market share dropped to 31.9%. Firefox occupied the third position with a share of 25.55%. With competition steaming up in the global browser market, Mozilla was gearing up to increase its market share by making Firefox more appealing to mainstream users while maintaining the loyalty of its early adopters. Notwithstanding the new challenges in open source innovation, going forward Mozilla planned to continue with its innovations using its open source software, support new Web standards, and provide a common platform for Desktop, Mobile, and Web Apps. According to the company, "Firefox continues to be a fundamental lever in driving the Web forward and advancing the Mozilla mission. At the same time, the Web is evolving and moving into new areas and so is Mozilla. In addition to delivering Firefox on mobile phones and tablets, we will focus on new projects in the important areas of Apps, Identity, Education, and more." ...

Exhibit I: Mozilla: A Timeline
Exhibit II: Goals and Principles of Mozilla Manifesto
Exhibit III: Roles and Leadership at Mozilla
Exhibit IV: Mozilla's Open Innovation Value Network
Exhibit V: Some Featured Projects of Mozilla*
Exhibit VI: Mozilla Awards (2005-2011)
Exhibit VII: Mozilla Foundation and Subsidiaries-Consolidated Statement of Financial Position
Exhibit VIII: Global Web Browser Market Share (April 2011-April 2012)
Exhibit IX: Web Browser Market Share (As of May 2012)
Exhibit X: Chrome's Growing Popularity and What it Means for Firefox

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