Panasonic will stick with Mozilla’s Firefox as its TV operating system for 2016. This year’s TVs will get Firefox OS 2.0 that introduces “web apps” and more. The 2.0 update will not be released for 2015 models.

Firefox OS 2.0
The new Panasonic TVs will hit stores in spring but Firefox OS 2.0 is a little delayed so it will be released as a software update for the TVs later this year. In the video below Panasonic briefly demonstrates one of the tent-pole features; “web apps”.



In addition to “web apps” the update will include a “mobile to TV” function that should work a lot like Chromecast and Airplay. From an Android phone/tablet and the Firefox browser you can wirelessly push media files to the TV.

No update for 2015 TVs
Panasonic will continue to bring minor updates and new apps to last year’s TVs but the company has chosen to not bring the full Firefox OS 2.0 update to the 2015 models.

Panasonic confirmed the disappointing news to FlatpanelsHD at Panasonic Convention 2016 in Frankfurt.

In doing so, Panasonic will mirror several of its colleagues in the industry. Buyers had hoped that the new generation of TV operating systems that were in introduced last year (Firefox OS, Android TV and Tizen) would bring better long-term support to TVs.