The fox goes mobile
Mozilla Corp, the company behind Firefox, has announced plans to develop a version of the popular Web browser software for mobile phones. But the mobile browser market is already crowded. Can Firefox compete? It has been scarcely three years since the first version of Firefox was released but in that short time the free, open-source Web browser has made big inroads, taking significant market share from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE).
It has been downloaded more than 400m times and, according to XiTi Monitor, Firefox had a 28% share of the European browser market in mid-2007. Worldwide, it has about 25% market share, according to Web tracker W3Counters.
These are big numbers if one considers that Windows comes bundled with IE — to access the Web, computer users don’t have to download a separate Web browser. Yet, one quarter of computer users worldwide have elected to download, install and run Firefox.
The reasons are clear: Firefox is a relatively secure, lightweight browser which supports tabbed browsing, a way of opening multiple websites in the same browser window. The software also supports useful features such as “live bookmarks”, a clever way of receiving Web feeds such as news headlines using a system known as really simple syndication. Firefox also allows users to choose from hundreds of third-party add-ons which provide extra functionality to the browser. Add-ons include download managers and themes which allow users to “skin” Firefox.
Firefox’s market share gains forced Microsoft to reconstitute its IE development team a couple of years ago, a move which culminated in the release of IE7 at the end of last year. IE7 includes tabbed browsing and other features that have made Firefox so popular. But reports show that computer users have been slow in adopting Microsoft’s new browser. A majority (59%) of people visiting FM Tech, a website I operate, use IE. Of those, 43% use IE7 and 56% the older IE6. More than a third (35%) of visitors to FM Tech use Firefox.
Can Mozilla translate Firefox’s PC performance to the mobile world? The company announced this month that it is working on a Web browser for cellphones. But the market is crowded. Microsoft develops IE for Windows Mobile smartphones; Symbian devices, such as Nokia smartphones, include a competent browser; Norway’s Opera Software has developed mobile browser software for a number of years already; and Apple has Safari, which runs on its iPhone handsets.
The mobile Firefox browser, which will ship in 2008 at the earliest (2009 seems more likely), is expected to work on a range of devices, including Windows Mobile and Linux. Symbian support also seems likely.
In a post to his blog, Mozilla vice-president for engineering Mike Schroepfer explains that the decision to develop a mobile Firefox is predicated on the fact that mobile devices are outselling PCs 20 to one. “A large portion of the world accesses the Internet from mobile devices and this will become increasingly true over time,” he says.
Schroepfer hints that a mobile Firefox could allow users to sync their bookmarks, history, extensions and other data automatically between their mobile phones and their PCs.
But Firefox will have an uphill battle persuading phone users to install the software. On the PC, it was arguably easier for it to gain a toehold: Microsoft had all but stopped development of IE, leaving a gap for an innovative third party to provide an alternative.
On mobile phones, the competition with Opera, Safari and IE will be fierce. On the other hand, there’s no clear market leader yet in mobile browsers, so Mozilla has a fighting chance. “There is still plenty of room for innovation,” says Schroepfer.
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