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Mozilla Is Eyeing Your Phone

Posted by timothy on from the convergence-cometh dept.

Slatterz writes "Mozilla is planning to develop a browser for mobile phones by 2010. Mitchell Baker, chairman of the Mozilla Foundation, has been laying out her plans for the organisation over the next two years. Baker also committed to expanding the role of Firefox and building on its market share, while developing new browser technology such as the Aurora project. Mozilla has already stated that it is working on a mobile version of Firefox, but has never set a timeframe for release."

4 of 107 comments (clear)

  1. 2010? by rallymatte · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They will be left so far behind.
    Apple's safari is already an amazing browser for mobile phones.
    I'm sure that Google won't take as long as 2010 to come out with a mobile version of Chrome.
    Opera might not be the best browser for mobile phones, but it's pretty decent.
    IMHO I think Mozilla needs to get their mobile browser out a little bit earlier than that. Of course it's a good strategy to not release the software until it's ready, but how far behind are they ready to get?

    1. Re:2010? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Apple's Safari only comes with the iPod touch and the iPhone and cannot be used with normal phones.
      Google Chrome for phones will take far longer to come as they still have to iron out bugs in their desktop version, which is their main focus, before they will release a mobile version.
      Opera is not very customizable and I for one hate the interface.

      I believe this is a good step by Mozilla and I would far rather have a good version and wait a bit longer than have a buggy version but have it earlier. Anyways, I'm sure they will have beta versions released far earlier than that for early adopters such as you.

    2. Re:2010? by entgod · · Score: 5, Informative

      Apple's Safari only comes with the iPod touch and the iPhone and cannot be used with normal phones. Yes, that's right, that's why Nokia's phones all use it. Wait, no, that's not right.

      You're right, it isn't. The Nokia phones most certainly do not use safari even though nokias browser does utilize webkit, the same rendering engine as safari and chrome. Webkit != safari.

    3. Re:2010? by repvik · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Google Chromes V8 engine can compile to x86 and ARM targets. ARM is in the majority of phones. I don't think it'll take Google very long to get Chrome "good enough". Infact, I'm pretty sure they'll release Android with Chrome on the HTC "Dream", to be released in Q4.