14 DAY TRIAL // Mozilla, the not-for-profit organization behind the Firefox browser, is already working on a browser for mobile phones, which is called Fennec. Available at the moment for download for Maemo devices, in a Beta 4 flavor, and for Windows Mobile-powered ones, in an Alpha 1 version, the browser will also come to Google's Android operating system and to the handsets running under it.
Mozilla CEO John Lilly is the one who said recently in an interview with GigaOm that this was the road the company would take with its mobile software solution. The browser can already be used on Nokia's Maemo 5-based N900 handset, and the OS will be supported due to the fact that “Nokia is invisible in the U.S., but that is not the case in rest of the world.” Moreover, it will also come to Windows Mobile in a final form, before the Android version becomes available.
As for what the browser is set to deliver to users, things look as great as possible: “We wanted to build a browser that did everything — Javascript, CSS, Flash, SVG, video and audio. What that meant was we had to wait for a while for devices to get better to handle this modern browser,” Lilly said. “It is the most advanced mobile browser,” he stated, adding that it was based on the Firefox 3.6 engine, the next version of Firefox for desktop PCs.
Jay Sullivan, vice president of Mobile for Mozilla, also has a word to say on this: “Mozilla Firefox will be the first mobile browser to support add-ons.” He also pointed towards the immense number of Firefox add-ons that have been downloaded until now. According to Sullivan, Firefox on the mobile market is expected to see the same traction from users.
Mozilla's Fennec mobile web browser will have to prove itself in a market that is already led by Webkit-based browsers and Opera. Its presence on powerful devices will certainly give it a boost, though there might be another problem too: the company plans on embracing the more open HTML5 standards and not to develop for each mobile platform separately, something that takes time.
Download Fennec 1.0 Beta 4 for Maemo. Download Fennec 1.0 Alpha 3