Mozilla is pushing back deadlines for new versions of Firefox, calculating that taking a little more time to deliver new software will be worth the risk.
Unlike in years past, when Firefox was the only serious, free alternative to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, the browser landscape is especially crowded these days, and browsers that fall too far behind the upgrade race risk losing substantial market share.
In the past year, Google has released Chrome for Windows and beta versions for Mac and Linux; Apple has been aggressively promoting Safari; Microsoft has been putting some new energy into Internet Explorer; and Opera has been working on building new, speedy JavaScript engines.
A Window for IE
The next version of Firefox, version 3.6, was slated for a 2009 release, but now that won’t happen until at least the first quarter of 2010. And plans for the major 4.0 release have been pushed back until the end of 2010 at the earliest, and more likely the first quarter of 2011.
That delay could be good news for Microsoft, says Charles King, principal analyst with Pund-IT. Recent numbers show Firefox 3.5 with a larger percentage of users than either Internet Explorer 7 or 8, but the trends also show a relatively rapid transition to Microsoft’s latest browser due to market adoption of Windows 7.
“With the delay of the next version of Firefox, Microsoft has a window to take back some market share,” King said. “A lot will depend on how well Microsoft gets the word out about IE 8 — how different and better it is than IE 7 and the current Firefox offering.”
Personas, Jetpack and Electrolysis
One of the big additions in 3.6 is the Personas plug-in, which will allow users to easily customize the appearance of the browser. Personalization is something that’s popular with end users, although…
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