Newest challenger to iOS and Android software dead before leaving the gate - CNET

Acadine Technologies, a startup trying to give phone users a software alteative to the dominant powers of Google and Apple, is on its last legs.

With no new funding in hand, last month's waings of possible layoffs at Acadine are materializing. The company's entire engineering staff will lose their jobs this week. And the Hong Kong-based startup is waing business partners it's ceasing work for now on its software, called H5OS, according to a copy of a message seen by CNET.

"Due to an unforeseen situation, where we did not receive the funding that was contractually committed to us, all engineering work on H5OS will be suspended at Acadine immediately," the company told business partners such as mobile phone chipmaker Qualcomm over the weekend. "This is a very unfortunate situation that we have not been able to find a way to avoid. We deeply appreciate all your support for us in the past 12 months."

Think of it as the second death of Firefox OS. Executives from Acadine left Mozilla, best known for the Firefox browser, to build a variation of the troubled operating system with the hopes that it could power smartwatches and lower-end phones. Acadine hoped to build an alteative to potentially loosen Apple and Google's grip the market. But most people are happy with their iPhones and Android devices.

As Apple and Google accumulate power, it's harder for customers, app programmers, business partners and anyone else who might want to try something different. Acadine's Web-based technology in principle offered more openness when it comes to things like writing apps, choosing messaging tools and distributing music and video.