Mobile Firefox and Opera 9.5 heat up browser wars
Published: 21 October, 2008
READ MORE: Browsers
Not since the days of Netscape versus Internet Explorer have we seen a genuine battle for power in the browser market. The latest to try to ensure Microsoft does not rule the mobile browser is the open source Mozilla Foundation, which has released its mobile product, Fennec, to developers; while the stalwart of mobile off-deck browsers, Opera, has shipped its latest product for Symbian smartphones.
Perhaps tellingly, the Fennec product has been spotted first on Nokia's N810 Internet Tablet, a mobile device without a cellular connection (just Wi-Fi). However, Mozilla will soon take the battle to Microsoft, with a Windows Mobile version of Fennec promised by year end.
The alpha release of Fennec shows a product that uses the same base technology as the desktop version, including its HTML rendering engine called Gekko. It will have touchscreen support - although the most famous touchscreen handset, the iPhone, is not supported because of Apple's refusal to allow browsers into the App Store. Mozilla is ruling out BlackBerry at this stage, but is likely to address Symbian at some point in 2009. Most surprisingly, it said it it not working on a version for Linux-based Android - although Google is famously working on its own browser, Chrome, its open credentials ought to ensure it keeps Android open to other browsers too.
Opera is under pressure from the rising tendency of web-optimized handsets to sport their own default browsers. It has released the second beta of its new browser for Windows Mobile, and its first for Symbian UIQ, plus an alpha release for Symbian Series 60. The developer versions of Opera Mobile 9.5 come with significant changes, notably the updated Opera Widgets SDK, plus faster page loading, and a package of developer tools that includes the Opera Dragonfly debugger.
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