Thursday, Oct 11, 2007    Text size: 

“The user demand for a full browsing experience on mobile devices is clear,” Mozilla Vice President Mike Schroepfer wrote in his blog. “If you weren't sure about this before, you should be after the launch of the iPhone.”

Currently in the process of developing Mozilla2, the second version of their Internet platform software, designers will integrate a mobile component into the program, so the software will be developed with functionality for mobile devices incorporated into its design.

On his blog, Schroepfer noted several reason for Mozilla to be ramping up efforts to create an open-source browser for use with mobile devices.

He pointed out that, globally, many people now access the Internet through handheld devices and that mobile devices outsell computers 20-to-1. He stated also that Mozilla would offer advantages to device manufacturers in terms of offering open-source software with a browser that has the “flexibility” to be customized for their devices.

“Firefox is the most popular open-source browser on the planet with 100 million active users,” Schroepfer said. “Bringing Firefox add-ons, the Mozilla platform (including XUL), open source and a large and passionate community to the closed and fragmented mobile platform will do the world some serious good.”

A Mozilla-based mobile browser called Minimo was introduced for Windows Mobile devices earlier this year, but the lead developer of the program said that he would no longer dedicate time to the project, and the company agreed also not to pursue further development.

However, the company is in development with ARM Ltd. and Montavista Software Inc., on a project for an open-source Linux-based platform for devices that are, in size, somewhere between a cellphone and a laptop, a platform similar to the browser Mozilla has already developed for the Nokia N800.

The company has hired Christian Sejersen, formerly of Open Systems Inc. to be in charge of platform engineering and to open a research and development division in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Brad Lassey, who has collaborated with Mozilla on mobile projects, also has been hired to bring his efforts to the company on a fulltime basis.