Mozilla – Challenging the Mobile Internet Browsers – Blackberry, IE, Android, etc.

Implications: Thank goodness Mozilla is stepping up to mobile web browsing.  Fennec may be everyone’s answer to a mobile Internet Explorer/mobile web browsing experience. There are many mobile browsers - none work perfectly; some work better than others, and all tied to the handset manufacturer.

Analysis: The proprietary nature of mobile browsers is not an issue for me at this time.  The issue is the manner in which mobile browsing has been presented to date.  Rather than facilitating browsing on a handheld device, many manufacturers have sought to duplicate the desktop browser on the handheld device.

What manufacturers ought to be doing is facilitating on a handheld device not duplicating something you see on a 19 inch screen on a 2 inch by 2 inch screen.  Some manufacturers seemed not to have even bothered producing a usable mobile browser.  Manufacturers need to focus on the consumer experience.  You can create your own proprietary interfaces and codes for all I care; just enable it to meet my needs for ease of use and speed.

My experience with Mozilla’s Firefox has been problem free for the last few months.  No excessive delays in moving to new pages; i.e., it is responsive.  My mobile browser locks up.  The carrier tells me that it’s the handset and not their network that is the cause of the hiccups and delays.  I don’t believe the carrier completely, their network is not exactly know for perfection.  Yes my statements are the result of empirical data gathering.  There has been no formal data gathering.  However, the wireless industry knows that at this time the mobile browser sector is as wide open as the Old West was and maybe just as wild.

Google has the Android platform.  There has been a lot of hype about Android; the Great Hope of the Open Network world.  Google may have a different approach to mobile browsing.  Frankly, I would be curious to see what a desktop search engine company will do with mobile browsing.

My hope is that Fennec,a mobile version of Firefox, will enable me to web browse on my mobile handset as easily as Firefox allows me on my desktop computer.  Right now browsing is difficult with my current 4 month old handset.  Aside from the marketing hype campaign launched by Mozilla, “the proof will be in the pudding”.  I will be waiting to try out Fennec.

A challenge for the mobile industry will be converging on a common set of principles that will serve as a foundation for mobile browser development.  Then again maybe the goal ought to be intense competition in the browser space.  This may be a new area of investment opportunity.