Mozilla’s Firefox skitters into crowded mobile browser space

Mozilla Corp. is looking to jump onto the mobile browser playground with a version of its popular open-source Firefox offering.
The Mountain View, Calif.-based developer is stepping up its wireless efforts, expanding its team of developers and building an application that will run Firefox extensions on mobile devices. And Mozilla is adding wireless gadgets to the first class/tier-one platform set for Mozilla 2, which “means we will make core platform decisions with mobile devices as first-class citizens,” according to Mike Schroepfer, the company’s VP of engineering.
“Up until very recently, device limitations required writing new mobile browsers from the ground up,” Schroepfer wrote on Mozilla’s blog. “Being able to leverage all the investments in the Mozilla platform across both desktops and devices is the right approach. There is far from a dominant player in this marketplace and even the best mobile browsers today have compromises in user experience, performance and compatibility. There is still plenty of room for innovation.”
While others have charged into wireless at full throttle, Mozilla has quietly tinkered with ways to bring its offerings to mobile users. The company has developed a browser for Nokia Corp.’s N800 and earlier this year launched Joey, a technology that looks to bridge the gap between PCs and mobile phones by allowing users to store content on a remote server and access it wirelessly.
Critics claim Mozilla may be late to mobile, citing the traction that has been attained by Opera Software, Novarra and others. But Mozilla could bring considerable muscle to the party: the company’s open-source browser boasts 100 million PC users, many of whom are actively involved in improving the platform or building applications on top of Firefox.
“Bringing Firefox add-ons, the Mozilla platform (including XUL), open source, and a large and passionate community to the closed and fragmented mobile platform would do the world some serious good,” Schroepfer posted.