We have known for awhile that Mozilla was working on Firefox for Android and now we have visual progress. Vladimir Vukićević (a Mozilla developer) just posted a screen shot of the first page load from the Firefox browser running in the Android emulator. He notes that we are still a ways to go from a usable alpha release, but we are one step closer.
Note that the screen shows the full Firefox browser and not the mobile UI. Vladimir explains the situation on his blog:
You’ll note that this is the full Firefox interface, and not the Fennec/Firefox Mobile UI; we’re testing with the full interface because it’s significantly more complex than the mobile UI and stresses Gecko much more. So, if the full UI works, then Fennec should work fine as well. Given the interest in Android on netbook and tablet devices, an updated version of the full Firefox UI might find a home on some of these. Android has been pretty great to work with so far; it’s a bit unusual platform for us due to its Java core, but with the NDK we’re able to bridge things together without many problems.Vladimir VukićevićMozilla
In a related note, Mozilla has updated their mobile platforms page with their plans for other operating systems. They chose Maemo as their first mobile platform then started on Windows Mobile. Android is Mozilla’s next biggest challenge and they have no plans to support other platforms at this time.
Mozilla does not have plans to build an iPhone browser due to constraints with the OS environment and distribution.
Bonus: Check out the more than 40 add-ons that are currently available for Firefox Mobile
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Taylor Wimberly
Taylor is the founder of Android and Me. He loves playing with all kinds of gadgets, but most importantly cell phones. His other hobbies include cooking (BBQ hero!), politics, football, and watching every MMA event possible.
14 Comments
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read the quote, the actual UI is not one. They’ve used that one for tests cos it’s heavier and if it works good with that, it will work good with the real UI (which seems to be ready as well).
Can’t wait for Fennec!
Good job! Looking forward for this
Oh man, this is looking great for Android. I’m currently an iPhone 3GS user, but as soon as AT&T gets the Nexus One (I’m hoping the FCC findings are correct), I’m ridding myself of Apple and going with Google. I would jump ship from AT&T, but my wife and I share a family plan and we can’t afford to cancel our contract and I’m too excited to wait a few years.
for family plans check out T-Mobile of course depending on your location [area you live in] your current provider may my a better connection i’m with T-Mobile my area connection is awsome here in Texas check out prices and T-Mobile has lower price than all others
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RTFA
This is great news.
I’m really glad to see that Mozilla is working on this and it’s nice to hear that they are aiming not just at the mobile handset market but all Android devices.
I’m also REALLY happy to hear they aren’t planning on developing for iPhone. More resistance to the closed platform is good!
Wow i had to look twice at the screen shot, at first i thought it was on computer. Well looks awsome. Can’t wait to try it out.
This makes me happy!
yes!!!!!! another loss for IPhone!
I’ve been following this pretty closely, and all I can say is YESSSSSS. There’s an add on I need for the site I work with, hopefully a mobile firefox version won’t be too hard to make.