Mozilla's Open Innovation and New Challenges

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The organization provided the source code of its software and invited developer communities and volunteers consisting of both individuals and large companies to develop new functionalities and software products. The volunteers helped envision the product, developed and tested it, fixed bugs, and provided customer service. The Firefox web browser, which was launched in late 2004, was Mozilla's most successful open source product. As of June 2011, Firefox, with millions of contributors around the world, was the second most popular web browser in the world with a market share of 28.34%.

Though Mozilla became a model for participatory and open-source collaboration, analysts said that there were many new and emerging challenges in open source innovation that the key decision makers at Mozilla would have to address. They were also concerned about the falling market share of its flagship browser Firefox. According to web analytics firm, StatCounter⁶ , Firefox's market share in the Internet browser market had dropped from a high of nearly 30% in April 2011 to 25.55% in May 2012 . Firefox faced tough competition from web browsers like Google Chrome (Chrome) from Google Inc.⁷ (Google) and Internet Explorer (IE) from Microsoft Corporation⁸ (Microsoft). In November 2011, it lost its position as the second most used web browser in the world to Chrome, whose market share had been increasing consistently since 2008, thereby threatening the dominance of both IE and Firefox. Experts said that going forward, Mozilla would face some major challenges in increasing its browser usage. According to Sebastian Anthony, senior editor at technology Weblog ExtremeTech, "What will happen now, assuming Microsoft and Google continue to barrage each other with their full arsenal of cannon, is that Firefox will gradually fade into a position of feared, revered veterancy - kind of like an aging grandfather who sits on a rocking chair in the middle of the World Wide Web with a loaded shotgun. It might even get to the stage where Firefox has to occasionally loose some crazy feature onto the web, just to remind everyone that it's still alive. Eventually, if Microsoft really is serious about open web technologies and Google does no evil, Firefox might even die."

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6] Based in Dublin, Ireland, StatCounter provides free web analytics globally.
7] Founded in 1998, Google Inc. is the world's largest Internet search company. It offers a number of Internet-based services and products. As of December 31, 2011, the Company's business was focused on areas such as search, advertising, operating systems and platforms, and enterprise. For the year ended 2011, the company reported revenues of US$ 37.91 billion. Launched on September 2, 2008, by Google Inc., Google Chrome is an open source browser designed to make it easy for users to search and navigate the web for online content. As of May 2012, Chrome had a 32.43% worldwide usage share of web browsers, making it the most widely used web browser.
8] Microsoft Corporation is one of the largest multinational companies that develops, manufactures, licenses and supports a wide range of software products for computing devices. In 2011, the company's revenues were US$ 69.94 billion. The IE, a free web browser, was launched by the company in 1995.

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