Mozilla preps a Mobile Firefox

Mozilla has recently hired two new developers to help work on the project and plans to release Mobile Firefox some time in the next year or two.

"People ask us all the time about what Mozilla's going to do about the mobile web, and I'm very excited to announce that we plan to rock it," Mike Schroepfer, a Mozilla developer known as "schrep," wrote on the Mozillazine blog.

Mozilla's plans include making mobile devices a first-tier platform, shipping a version of Firefox designed for mobile devices that also supports extensions and XUL application development, and expanding the team of full-time mobile Firefox developers. The problem for Mozilla is that there are already some entrenched players in the mobile space, and dislodging them is bound to be difficult.

The new Mozilla hires who will contribute to the mobile Firefox initiative are Christian Sejersen, who recently worked for Openwave Systems Inc., and Brad Lassey, who worked for France Telecom R&D, which has been very active in mobile Linux initiatives.