Mozilla has confirmed that a mobile version of Firefox will be released soon, possible before the end of the year.
Mozilla has announced that first mobile phone version of the popular web browser Firefox is ready for launch, as told to BBC by head of the project. The project is code named as 'FENNEC' (Fennec is A small, African, foxlike animal of a pale fawn color, remarkable for the large size of its ears).
Fennec will be ported into the N900 mobile phone of Nokia initially. This will be followed by releases for other handsets begining in year 2010. As per the BBC interview of Jay Sullivan, head of the Fennec project at Mozilla, versions of Fennec for Microsoft's Windows mobile and Google's Android editions are in progress. But there is a disappointment for Apple's popular iPhone user community. "Apple is very restrictive." Sullivan said. "As it's a pretty closed platform we don't see that happening soon."
Firefox Mobile targets to implement a transparent synchronization of browsing history, preferences, favorites and passwords between a user's Home Computers ,Office Computers and and cell phones. This will be the key feature providing complete synchronization with the desktop edition of Firefox. User can just leave his personal computers and working set of web pages will opened on the mobile device. This would be done by storing details of user's browsing session on a remote server in an encrypted form to protect the privacy and can be accessed by both the computer and handset.
Fennec will additional features like integrationg the tabbed browsing and add-on features. Jay Sullivan said 'it would also be the first mobile browser to have "add-ons", small pieces of software that add functionality to the browser such as news readers or online games. They can also be used to customise the look and feel of the browser. He also hinted that user will see usage of geo-location and exploit how the device is tilted. This will provide utility for developers to implement applications which work with the browser. However, Sullivan says Fennec will not completely replace apps but they will co-exist.
Schek Kunder
NetFortuna Consulting
www.netfortuna.com
