{"id":462333,"date":"2010-03-23T10:00:17","date_gmt":"2010-03-23T14:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jkontherun.com\/?p=60585"},"modified":"2010-03-23T10:00:17","modified_gmt":"2010-03-23T14:00:17","slug":"mozilla-is-running-out-of-mobile-options-for-firefox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/462333","title":{"rendered":"Mozilla Is Running Out of Mobile Options for Firefox"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Mozilla yesterday stopped development on its browser for Microsoft’s mobile platform<\/a>, citing the lack of a Native Development Kit. The new Windows Phone 7 operating system is built upon Windows CE 6.0, but without an NDK, Mozilla isn’t moving forward. In fact, progress on Windows Mobile 6.x devices is halting as well. That’s a shame because the Mozilla team outed an Alpha browser version for the current Microsoft-powered handsets back in 2008 and updated it last year<\/a>. Granted, the door is being closed by the Mozilla team here — they’re making a choice to wait for an NDK — but there’s a larger aspect to this situation: It sheds light on open vs closed approaches in the mobile space.<\/p>\n

Stepping back for a second, where does this move put Mozilla and their open source approach? Instead of focusing on browsers for closed or controlled ecosystems like Apple’s — and so far with Windows Phone 7, like Microsoft’s — the project effort will focus on Android and Maemo, just as Om predicted late last year on GigaOm<\/a>. Both platforms embrace the open source path that Mozilla follows. Google introduced an NDK last year<\/a> and since Mozilla programs Firefox in C\/C++, the NDKs support the code base. Prior to Google’s release of an NDK, Mozilla would have had to create the browser in Java. Had they done that successfully, we might<\/em> have seen it on Research In Motion’s BlackBerry platform, but that never happened — and it’s unlikely that it ever will. There isn’t an NDK that I know of for the Maemo platform, but according to the SDK licensing agreement, some closed Nokia code, functions and binaries. And Maemo is built upon Linux rather than an a closed, proprietary platform.<\/p>\n

So where does this leave Mozilla, and other open source vendors, in the mobile market? Until Microsoft releases a Native Development Kit — and there’s no guarantee they will — Mozilla doesn’t have many choices left. It could take the same approach that Opera is trying and attempt to get a browser through the iTunes App Store approval process. I don’t\u00a0foresee\u00a0that happening for Opera, which just submitted their browser application<\/a> for approval. Like many of us, Mozilla will likely be watching to see how that situation pans out. That rules out the iPhone and Windows Phone 7 platforms for now. And unless or until RIM radically alters the BlackBerry platform, they’re not a potential development target either. Palm now offers a PDK<\/a>, or Plug-In Development Kit, that supports C and C++, but I don’t expect Mozilla to focus on webOS given Palm’s current struggles<\/a>.<\/p>\n