I could care less about their being a third party--we already have that with the search bar (and it's been promised that Pocket integration was just a step towards a more general Reading list API, though I don't know how well that's been followed through with). What annoys me is that baking features like Hello and Pocket into the browser doesn't strike me as "promoting openness, innovation & opportunity on the Web," it just seems like a desperate attempt to regain market share.
I believe the root of this change-in-mission is well expressed in a post by David Rajchenbach-Teller [1]:
While I personally want a browser that is fast, small, reliable
and trustworthy, we have market research that shows us that you
and I are a minority. More precisely, we have market numbers
that shows that users want a Pocket-like feature and are not
going to bother checking if there are add-ons that implement
it.
I would be very surprised if the kind of users who won't check for addons are also the kinds of users who would go out of the way to change their browser (... or even know what a browser is).
I believe the root of this change-in-mission is well expressed in a post by David Rajchenbach-Teller [1]:
I would be very surprised if the kind of users who won't check for addons are also the kinds of users who would go out of the way to change their browser (... or even know what a browser is).[1] https://groups.google.com/d/msg/mozilla.governance/2PYq2w8te...