Just a few days after releasing Firefox for the Nokia N900 handset, Mozilla just announced that it is also making good progress on an Android version of Firefox. According to Firefox developer Vladimir Vuki?evi?, development of Android for Firefox is progressing quickly. While there are no plans for the release of an official alpha version just yet, Vuki?evi? has already managed to compile and install an early version of Firefox for Android.
Currently, the Android version is still running the standard Firefox desktop user interface and not the Firefox Mobile/Fennec interface. According to Vuki?evi?, this is meant to ensure that Firefox will work on any Android device, including those with larger screens.
Here is the first screenshot of Firefox running on Android (in an emulator):
Currently, the Android version is still missing a number of core features and Vuki?evi? still has to work out quite a few bugs (the keyboard doesn’t work, for example). Now that the team has managed to create a working prototype, however, Vuki?evi? expects the development process to speed up significantly.
Mozilla is Taking Aim at the Mobile Browser Market
Firefox is clearly working at creating a stronger presence on mobile platforms like Maemo, Windows Mobile, and Android. For now, however, Opera still has a stronger presence in the mobile market, with apps for Windows Mobile, Android and virtually every other major mobile platform. Mozilla is still a step behind here, but hopefully we will soon see a lot more competition in the mobile browser market. Mozilla doesn’t currently have any plans to develop a browser for the BlackBerry, Symbian or iPhone platforms.
[via Android Central]
