It is easy to blame Fireofx OS now for the waste, but 4 years ago it was not that easy to see that it would be a total disaster. It was just things that Mozilla was betting on did not come through.
The real problem for me is why Firefox OS was not stopped 2 years ago when trends became clear. That is inexcusable given the amount of efforts Mozilla continued to spend on it.
4 years ago boot-to-gecko was still at the rather early stage and it was not possible to see how it would end. Given the need to diversify for Mozilla it was reasonable to proceed to get at least one shipping device. Even 3 years ago with the first phone release one could argue that continuing with the project was not totally unreasonable. But 2 years ago the market message was crystal clear.
The real problem for me is why Firefox OS was not stopped 2 years ago when trends became clear. That is inexcusable given the amount of efforts Mozilla continued to spend on it.