Mozilla 'a few weeks away' from a Mobile Browser Alpha release

[Ewan]

While the desktop computers got their 'browser war' in the nineties, it never really took off in the mobile space. Not that we're restricted to one browser - Opera, Skyfire, WebCore/Safari and various proxy powered java browsers are all available to us – it's just that there was never a bloodbath or legal threats. Anyway, Mozilla may be joining the browser party sooner than we think, according to reports in The Mercury News (via MoCoNews MoCoNews).

Read on in the full article.

2 things:

If they don't produce a Symbian version it'll be pretty much an automatic fail. In mobile, Windows Mobile is a very minor and unimportant platform. iPhone as we all know is in total lockdown with anything that competes with Apple's software (i.e. Safari), Android - well, how many people do you know with an Android phone in their pocket? Nuff said. So, Symbian is where it's at. If Mozilla ignore the platform with over 50% market share, they're plain crazy.

Secondly, in the medium to long term (and ideally short term) it'll need to be better than Nokia Browser - significantly better. I won't say Opera Mobile 9.5 as that's a mythical beast that will never show it's face (on Symbian), and Opera Mini is a different kettle of fish. Still, being better than Nokia Browser is not hugely difficult.

[surur]

In the Ewan Spence article, Ewan says

There's no word yet on which platforms this will be targeted at, but it's likely going to be fully Open Source, and I think that once the world gets their hands on the code, we could see it implemented on one of the popular open platforms. To be honest I think many will consider this browser is going to be pointed at the Google Android platform, but all it would take is one or two Symbian coders (or Windows Mobile, or Apple, etc) to spend some time with the source code to have a native version.

I have been following this browser, and the platforms targetted have always been clear - Windows Mobile and Linux.


Quote:

Target Platforms
We will first focus our efforts on two platforms/devices running on ARM11 processors (ARM v6):

Linux - first device working already is the Nokia N800 (possibly update to N810) running Linux (maemo)

Windows Mobile 6 - a good first device is the HTC S730
These platforms are either already up and running or will be soon - and will allow our community to start testing UX with different hardware characteristics e.g. screen size (N800/N810: 800×480 vs. HTC S730 320×240) and touch-screen vs. non-touch-screen.

As many people will quickly notice there is no Symbian version here. We are aware of the millions of Symbian devices in the world and this is just a start and a good area to focus. We’d love help on Symbian if anyone is interested.

http://www.christiansejersen.com/blo.../mobile-goals/

Android has been dismissed as the app environment was based on Java, which was not considered powerful enough.

Maybe a correction to the article would be in order?

Surur

[Tzer2]

I think it will all just come down to whichever browser is bundled with the phone, which is pretty much what happened in the PC "browser wars" too.

From that point of view things are looking very VERY bright for WebKit right now, it is currently bundled with:

All S60 phones from Nokia and Samsung

All upcoming Series 40 6th Edition phones from Nokia

All phones from Apple

Put all those together (especially S40 6th Edition which will be on the cheapest mass market models) and that will soon be something like a majority of the phone market, or over 500 million devices a year. WebKit will be the default browser engine on mobile devices, and if mobile device growth continues it may become the default browser engine in general.

On top of that, WebKit is bundled with all Apple computers and Google is trying to introduce it to other types of PC through Chrome (though that's not a bundling of course).

As usual Ewan is talking utter balls. Not only is Surur correct that windows mobile and maemo are the only platforms for mobile firefox now, but android could not support a port at all with the current Java only third party API, and it would take more like 20 developers to port something as complex as firefox to Symbian. Dumbass.

@unregistered,

"Dumbass?"

Don't you think that was just a bit harsh? I might agree with everything said in this forum but WOW !!!!!!!!!!

You must have had a bad day or something. It happens.

[ebo]

I interviewed Mozilla Europe's President Tristan Nitot on Wednesday. He told Firefox Mobile is coming to Nokia's Linux tablets (that is, Maemo.org I assume) and Windows CE (meaning Windows Mobile Professional, I guess).

He added, however, that as source codes will be available, there's a chance to get the Symbian version too.

[rbrunner]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

... but android could not support a port at all with the current Java only third party API ...

Android is based on Linux, and it's correct that right now no other API is public than the Java-based one, but it's possible that Google would open their C++ based API to somebody really important. Whether a competing browser would get such a "blessing" is questionable, however.

[rbrunner]

Originally Posted by ebo

... He added, however, that as source codes will be available, there's a chance to get the Symbian version too.

Well, that's a kind and comforting statement, but I really don't see this happening. You would indeed need a whole group of knowledgable and motivated Symbian programmers (maybe less than 20 as proposed in another post, but still), and they would have to fight a tough uphill battle against Nokia's browser in firmware. Where to find those, and how to get them motivated?