Mozilla Won't Pursue Firefox for Windows Mobile

by Sam Dean - Mar. 23, 2010Comments (1)

In a blog post late Monday, Mozilla's Stuart Parmenter, director of Mobile Engineering, announced that the company will halt development of its version of the Firefox browser for phones running Microsoft's Windows Mobile OS. According to the the post, the reason for the move is that Microsoft is blocking native applications running on its newest Windows Phone 7 Series software. Windows Phone 7 is a big leap for Microsoft, with a new model for application development and deployment, and it looks like Mozilla will be better off looking elsewhere with its mobile strategy.

According to Parmenter's post:

"While we think Windows Phone 7 looks interesting and has the potential to do well in the market, Microsoft has unfortunately decided to close off development to native applications. Because of this, we won’t be able to provide Firefox for Windows Phone 7 at this time."

Instead of Windows Phone 7, Mozilla will concentrate its mobile browser efforts on Google Android and Maemo. Parmenter acknowledged that Mozilla has been working on a version of Firefox for Windows Mobile for some time, but the application development model for Windows Phone 7 focuses on Silverlight technology and other tools, and lack of support for native apps is the most radical break from norms of all.

Microsoft has, in some ways, shunned third-party developers with its Windows Phone 7 moves. Especially given the momentum that Android has and the installed base that Maemo has, Mozilla is probably better off dropping its focus on Microsoft's mobile OS.