Mozilla is set to shelve its Internet of Things hardware aspirations with the closure of its Connected Devices group.

In a statement provided to IoT Hub, Mozilla said it has “shifted [its] internal approach to the IoT opportunity to step from a focus on launching and scaling commercial products to one focused on research and advanced development.”

The company added that it will put its IoT research efforts into emerging technologies instead.

The disbanding of the Connected Devices group will result in job losses, as Mozilla will “need fewer and different roles as part of this shift in approach.”

Mozilla’s IoT venture was borne out of its efforts with the Firefox OS for smartphones, which never gained the popularity of its iOS and Android competition. The Firefox OS initiative was scuttled in December 2015, and the Connected Devices group was born, with senior vice president Ari Jaaksi as its spearhead.

Soon after its inception, a number of projects were announced by the group in March 2016, which included creating a digital butler for smart homes, ‘Project Sensor Web’ which touted the future of openly available sensor data for all parties, and ‘Project Vaani’, Mozilla’s voice interaction initiative.

Some of these projects will be shelved, but some, like Project Vaani, will continue in Mozilla’s Emerging Technologies group, whose function is to keep abreast of cutting-edge ideas and concepts that could be further developed into meaningful products and services.