Firefox Mobile browser fightback begins

Firefox makers blame community for lack of Mobile browser to date

Firefox Mobile browser fightback begins. Software, Phones, Browsers, Firefox 0

5 June 2008 11:10 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Mozilla Europe president Tristan Nitot has blamed the community structure enjoyed by Firefox developers as one of the key reasons a mobile version of the browser has been slow to take off to date.

"We aren’t structured to deal with selling licences or dealing with operators", Nitot told Pocket-lint in an interview to promote the release of the new desktop browser Firefox 3.

"This is a market where open source technology is only now becoming a possibility. Opera’s success has been that it can easily sell a per device licence so its easy to structure and sell into operators."

"We are getting close to fixing the browser market, so we can then look at Mobile", said Nitot, who spent the first 2 years working for the company for free.

Mozilla is currently working on two projects that are likely to see a mobile version of the browser on your mobile phone, although when is still up in the air.

"We’ve proved with the latest version of Firefox that the need for bigger CPUs and memory is no longer there, but is the industry ready?"

Codenamed Fennick and in very early development - it not planned to hit Alpha (the stage before Beta) until September this year - the mobile browser is being developed for the Linux and Windows Mobile operating systems.

Although Nitot doesn’t know when the mobile browser will come to fruition (he didn’t even have a final date for the Firefox 3 browser other than mid-June), he does hope it will include another Mozilla lab project called Weave.

The concept plans to "weave" the mobile browser and desktop browser together allowing you to share data between the two.

Not just looking at your bookmarks, the system would allow you to access the new Firefox Awesome Bar to see your search history, favourite sites and even tell you other information regardless of whether you were on a PC, mobile or netbook.

Firefox RC2 has been released today.

We will keep you posted.

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Comments

  • Stuart, I think you have misunderstood my comment regarding our community and its value in terms of developing Mozilla products. We in no way 'blame' our community for the lack of a mobile browser - in fact, it's due to our community that we're on track to ship Firefox 3 later this month. Without them, this simply would not be possible.

    However, it is true that Mozilla did not fit well in the traditional mobile industry, because we don't sell software licenses and don't have a professional services department. But the mobile industry is transforming itself, for example in adopting Linux, and these changes are much more favorable to our open-source and community-based approach.

    In this newer mobile industry, Mozilla will be able to play a stronger role and put into hands of millions of Mobile users the technology and user-experience - shaped by our community - who have made Firefox such a success.     Posted by Tristan Nitot, France
  • Tristan, thanks for your comments, and the interview on Wednesday, it was really informative and I even learnt a new shortcut or two from watching you in action on the new browser.

    In my article above, I was saying that you don't blame the community, merely the problems associated with a community structure.

    In the interview you seemed frustrated that you've got a great product, but due to the way the mobile market with its operators and handset makers is structured, Fifefox hasn't been able to get to where it wants a quickly as say Opera.

    I do however look forward to seeing a Firefox mobile browser in action.     Posted by stuartmiles, United Kingdom

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