Mobile Phones Blog

Mobile Firefox sees light of day, but only on Nokia tablet

October 20th, 2008 by Peter

Not since the days of Netscape versus Internet Explorer have we seen a genuine battle for power in the browser market. But on the mobile phone the market is still wide open, and no vendor has yet delivered a really killer product. The latest to try to ensure Microsoft does not rule the mobile browser is the open source Mozilla Foundation, which has released its mobile product, Fennec, to developers.

Perhaps tellingly, the product has been spotted first on Nokia’s N810 Internet Tablet, a mobile device without a cellular connection (just Wi-Fi).

This highlights that it is still a challenge to get a browser fully functioning on a traditional 3G cellphone, so a Linux/WLan product is a good first platform.

However, Mozilla – whose PC-based Firefox browser is the first since Netscape to provide a real challenge to Internet Explorer – will soon take the battle to Microsoft, with a Windows Mobile version of Fennec promised by year end.

The alpha release of Fennec shows a product that uses the same base technology as the desktop version, including its HTML rendering engine called Gekko. “What we have said before is that Firefox Mobile will be afforded the same first class citizen status as the desktop version, and not one version behind like most other web browser developers do,” said Christian Sejersen, mobile director of engineering on Mozilla Mobile, in an interview.

The mobile Firefox will have touchscreen support – although the most famous touchscreen handset, the iPhone, is not mentioned in the release roadmap, because of Apple’s fierce promotion of its own Safari browser, and its refusal to allow browsers into its App Store. Support for other mobile operating systems is less clear. Mozilla is ruling out BlackBerry at this stage, but is likely to address Symbian at some point in 2009. Most surprisingly, it said it it not working on a version for Linux-based Android, which – if things go Google’s way – will be the most commonly installed mobile Linux platform within a year or so. Although Google is famously working on its own browser, Chrome, its open credentials ought to ensure it keeps Android open to other browsers too. And if the system really does gain wide traction, Fennec will need to support it, despite any other conflicts of interest between Mozilla and Android. For now, though, the Nokia N810 Linux platform remains the one on which Fennec will show its paces.

The product will support JavaScript and Ajax as well as plug-in software including Adobe Flash. Later versions are expected to incorporate the geolocation features seen in the latest Firefox beta release, 3.1. A beta version will be released before the end of the year, and a public version in mid-2009. It will compete with on-deck browsers like Safari, as well as third party options like Opera Mobile and Skyfire.

Note: A Fennec is a small nocturnalfox which lives in the Sahara desert, and has large ears.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 20th, 2008 at 12:59 pm and is filed under BlackBerry, Google, Nokia, iPhone. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.