Everyone knows that the internet on mobile phones is becoming big business, with phones like the iPhone and the HTC Touch HD having upped the game no end. In terms of browsers, you’ve got Safari, you’ve got IE, you’ve got Opera… but there’s one big name that’s been notably absent from the mobile world: Firefox.
There’s a very simple reason for that, though: they’re still in the process of making it. Up until now, it’s been going under the development name of Fennec (which is actually a good codename, as it’s a type of fox, y’see… specifically that one with the massive ears that lives in the Sahara).
However, Mozilla have finally announced what the mobile version of Firefox will be called when it goes on general release, according to Phone Arena, and its name will be (fanfare)… Firefox. Just plain old Firefox, no ‘Mobile’ in sight. And that’s led some to say that it could be confusing to have browsers for two different platforms called the same thing.
That aside, it genuinely looks as though it’s turning out to be something a bit special. Word has it that it will feature tabbed browsing, and finger control, like all the best mobile web browsers. In that vein, though, it may well have to up its game considerably, because whilst Firefox on your PC is designed to be better than Internet Explorer (not much of a challenge, really…), on mobile phones, it’s going to have a different rival altogether, a browser that I use on my X1 Xperia, and that I consider to be the absolute high-water mark of mobile web browsers…
One word: Opera.
I use Opera Mobile, and believe me, the experience of using it is second to none, even better than (and I’m waiting for the fanboys to flay me alive for this) Safari on the iPhone. Opera is easily going to be Firefox’s biggest rival when it comes to mobile browsers, so Mozilla will have to make sure they get the actual interface spot on to beat it. And I mean spot on. Opera Mobile is just that good.
However, if Firefox can get those bits right, it should have a couple of features that will give it the edge. Firstly is the fact that, like its PC-based big brother, Mozilla want to give Firefox users add-ons, meaning that all the great add-ons you use on your desktop should be available on your mobile. Secondly, you’ll be able to sync up those add-ons, and your bookmarks, between your PC and your mobile. Third, and most unbelievably, is that if you have a tab open on the PC version of Firefox, when you switch to your mobile browser, you can have it so the same tab comes up on the mobile version of Firefox…
Just imagine, you’re doing something online, you get called away, but you power up your phone, and carry on browsing at the exact same point there, before going back to your PC. Get something with a big screen, like the Toshiba TG01, and you’re going to get a mobile internet experience not vastly different to the one on your PC.
Crikey, that could end the browser war right there…
No word yet on version other than the Windows Mobile one, but surely it can only be a matter of time before we see Firefox on things like the Nokia N97. I just hope that when they drop the Fennec name to call it Firefox they don’t drop the logo of the fox with the massive ears, because like the real fox, it really is unutterably sweet!
Are you as excoited as Technical Markus by the prospect of Firefox on your mobile? Leave us a comment and join the excitement!