The open-source Internet giant will roll out a mobile version of their marquee product, the Firefox web browser, for mobile devices next week, according to multiple online reports.
It's an alpha release, intended to test the software's sea legs before unleashing it on a wider audience. They're code-named the software "Fennec." During the alpha-testing phase, it'll only be available for the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet.
Mozilla CEO John Lilly said that a mobile version of Firefox has been a long time coming.
"We want to make sure that the Web on mobile is more like the Web than what the mobile industry offers today, which is closed, separate networks and not a very good information-getting experience for the user," Lilly said. "The first thing is to bring Firefox to mobile devices. We’re working on that, and we’ll see some alphas in a few weeks."
The mobile version of Firefox will include many of the browser's most familiar features, including a predictive address bar, as well as other functions unique to the Nokia N810 tablet.
Mozilla's Jay Sullivan said that a version for the Windows Mobile operating system will be available in a few months. In the meantime, Sullivan hopes that the open-source community and other developers will get to work on transporting plugins to the new mobile browser.
A wider release of Firefox Mobile for other devices isn't expected until 2009.