What to expect from Mozilla's mobile Firefox web browser

Now that Firefox 3 has finally shipped, the developers at Mozilla are starting to make time for other projects. Don't get us wrong, those busy little bees are already working on Firefox 3.1, but they're also working on something entirely new: a mobile web browser.

The mobile version of Firefox, (currently codenamed Fennec -- a final name hasn't been picked yet), will use the same rendering engine as Firefox 3. In other words, any web page you can view with the desktop browser will be usable on a mobile device. That includes AJAX-heavy web applications. But nobody's pretending that you can just run Firefox 3 on a cellphone without making any changes. After all, mobile devices have small screens, slow processors, low amounts of memory, and often rely on relatively slow internet connections.

Last week we showed you a first look at a concept interface that might make its way into the final product. But it might not. So we decided to speak with Jay Sullivan, VP of Mobile for Mozilla. He gave us a run down of what's in store for Fennec, including what types of devices will be supported and when you'll be able to try the browser out for yourself.

Like all Mozilla products, Fennec is open source. You can track the browser's progress on the Mozilla Mobile wiki. And if you're really adventurous, you can even install a pre-alpha build on your Linux or Windows Mobile device. We wouldn't recommend it at this point, but you could do it.

Sullivan says that eventually Mozilla hopes to partner with hardware makers to preload the mobile version of Firefox on handsets. Mozilla is targeting Linux and Windows Mobile initially, but will likely release a Symbian version in the not too distant future. There are no plans to a Google Android port at the moment, but Sullivan didn't rule it out.

On the other hand, it doesn't sound like you should expect to see an iPhone version anytime soon. Or ever. While Sullivan acknowledges that many users would like to use Firefox on the iPhone, he says the terms and conditions of the iPhone SDK are far too limiting. For example, Apple prohibits prevents application developers from including embedded scripting language. In other words, you could create a web browser that would compete with Safari, but it wouldn't be able to render JavaScript, which would severely limit its utility.

Sullivan laughed when we asked if there were any plans for a browser that would work on jailbroken iPhones. He says Mozilla isn't interested in creating software for a platform that's not open to developers, "There's enough platforms that we are allowed to be on"

The first public alpha of Fennec will likely be released by the end of the summer. It will first be available for Linux devices, with a Windows Mobile 6 version following shortly thereafter. Sullivan says Windows Mobile 5.0 might be supported as well, but it's unlikely that earlier versions of Windows Mobile will be. He also acknowledged that there aren't that many cellphones running Linux at the moment, but the LiMo Foundation, which Sullivan is part of, is hoping to change that.

Sullivan says Fennec will be different from Opera Mini in that it will be designed for high end devices that don't need proxy servers to deliver a full web experience. While Opera Mini does a great job at rendering web pages quickly, that's because each page is processed by Opera's servers first and then routed to your mobile device. Fennec will work more like Safari on the iPhone, which renders pages directly on the device.

While it's not clear how many features from the concept UI that Mozilla showed off last week will make it into the final build, Sullivan did highlight some of the things the team is working on:

• A better way to enter text on small screen devices without QWERTY keyboards. For one thing, the mobile browser will probably include an "awesome bar" which works like the location bar in Firefox 3. When you enter a tiny bit of text in the location bar, Firefox will offer a list of sites you may want to visit based on your history and bookmarks, which can save you a lot of keystrokes.
• Synchronization between the desktop and mobile browser. Imagine you have to run out the door, but you've got three tabs open on your desktop version of Firefox with web pages that you haven't finished reading. You may be able to load up Firefox on your mobile device and pick up exactly where you left off. Not only will your bookmarks and cookies be synchronized, but even your tab placement will be synced up with your desktop. This could also make life easier when trying to enter secure passwords for a web site. It's incredibly difficult to enter a password that includes upper case, lower case and numeric characters and symbols today. Enter a password on your desktop browser for use on your mobile device could save a lot of time and heartache.
  
• Full web page views. Mozilla is experimenting with a variety of methods for letting users view a full web page and zoom in on a specific area to see just a portion of the page. If the concept mobile UI is anything to go by, this feature may look nothing like the zooming interface you can find in Apple and Opera's current mobile browsers.

The goal is to have a full beta version of Firefox mobile ready to ship by the end of the year.

Tags: browser, cellphone, fennec, firefox, mobile-phone, tweet-this