Dive Brief:

• Mozilla is eliminating about 50 employees charged with bringing Firefox to connected devices, according to CNET, citing people familiar with the situation.​
• "We have shifted our internal approach to the Internet of Things opportunity," Mozilla said in a statement, "to step back from a focus on launching and scaling commercial products to one focused on research and advanced development, dissolving our connected devices initiative and incorporating our Internet of Things explorations into an increased focus on emerging technologies."
• Mozilla has about 1,000 employees total, according to CNET.

Dive Insight:

The popular open-source company, maker of the Firefox web browser, is still hiring in other areas, but some missteps in its connected devices work means the company will shift its focus away from commercial products and back toward research-related endeavors.

Firefox was once a very popular browser, but the company failed to adapt well to the mobile browsing experience. As mobile gained ground, Firefox fell behind.  

Google’s Chrome is now the world’s most-used browser, according to Net Applications. Last year, Chrome's user share increased from around 25% to just over 39% while other browsers like Firefox saw slow declines.