Mozilla: Firefox for mobile phones is coming
We've known Mozilla had big plans for the mobile space for a while now. But we were a bit disappointed when Mozilla announced their first major Mobile offering back in August. Joey is basically just a web clipping service that lets you save web content using your desktop Firefox browser and access it from any old mobile browser. We were hoping to see a mobile version of Firefox.Well, sometimes dreams do come true. Mozilla's Mike Schroepfer writes on his blog that work is underway to create a version of Firefox for mobile phones. There aren't a ton of details yet, but here's what we can tell you:
- Mozilla is adding mobile devices to the list of "first-class" development platforms
- Mobile Firefox will be able to run Firefox extensions on mobile devices and allow third party development via XUL
- Mozilla is expanding its team of mobile contributors
- Development on Joey will continue
- Don't expect further Minimo development
- Mobile Firefox will ship after Firefox 3













Comments
7
Subscribe to commentsCOct 10th 2007 11:56AM
Uh...Minimo???
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/minimo/releases/arm/0.1/
I thought that had been available for a while?
Brad LinderOct 10th 2007 11:57AM
Minimo was an experimental browser based on Mozilla. It was never very fast or stable. We're talking about a full-fledged Firefox web browser for mobile devices complete with support for Firefox extensions.
AalaapOct 10th 2007 2:12PM
I'd love to see a Java MIDP 2.0 version of Firefox for my Samsung SGH-U600. It's not something unwishable - I've been using Opera Mini for months now...
DagMXOct 11th 2007 8:44AM
I dont think this would take off too well.
For one, firefox isn't the most memory efficient browser and memory is a huge commodity in phones.
Secondly, most smartphones usually have a really good browser preinstalled in the likes of Opera Mobile etc...
Thirdly, if they choose to do it in Java, Opera is a huge competitor to stand against as Opera probably has the best cross-platform structure.
Not to say it will fail, but I think its not really a good idea.
Also while extensions seem like a good idea, again it goes back to the memory limitations of phones. Especially on smartphones where the OS itself is so memory hungry.
silviaOct 15th 2007 1:51PM
don't know if it will beat opera though
DavidOct 30th 2007 3:23PM
I would love to have mozilla do a version of firefox on my iphone rather than safari.. i know it would be soo much better!!!
daadirJan 4th 2008 9:33AM
VERY gud