[laumars]

There used to be a plethora of mobile platforms:

  * Symbian
  * Palm webOS
  * Mozilla (I think that was also called WebOS?)
  * Jola
  * Some blackberry thing based on QNX that "supported" Android apps
  * Tizan
  * Windows Phone
  * Ubuntu Phone

Plus a bunch of independent / hobby(?) ones that never really took off, eg the Inferno port

These days it feels like most people have given up trying to compete against Apple and Google.

[beerlord]

Because consumers and developers do not want to support more than two operating systems. Even Windows failed with Windows Mobile.

The up and comer is KaiOS, used on super low-end phones in India. Its a version of the Firefox OS.

[laumars]

I personally think the issue is more with the OEMs wanting to close their hardware than it is with developers and consumers (not that Im suggesting your point doesn't also play a part)

[petecox]

Mozilla's effort was Firefox OS (or Boot To Gecko), now forked as KaiOS.

[laumars]

Ahh fair enough.

Interesting to note that a quick look on the Firefox OS Wikipedia article has highlighted a bunch of other mobile platforms I'd forgotten.