While Fennec developers are aiming to get a piece of the pie, they admit there is still much work that needs to be done.
"Our priority right now is performance and responsiveness," Sullivan said. "There are projects underway like TraceMonkey, speculative parsing, graphics, networking and other improvements that will make the browser much faster and make it a good platform for application developers."
The TraceMonkey project is Mozilla's new JavaScript engine, designed to be the fastest engine in the space -- eclipsing Apple's SquirrelFish or Google's V8. TraceMonkey appears in Firefox 3.1 Beta 1.
Beyond speed, Mozilla also faces the challenge of mobile platform availability. Currently, Fennec is only available for Nokia's OS2008, which runs on the Nokia N810 Internet Tablets. A Windows Mobile port is in the works as well, though it's not part of the first Alpha release. Mozilla has, however, released desktop versions of Fennec for Mac, Linux and Windows users to test.
"That's right -- you can install Fennec on your Windows, OS X or Linux desktop too!" Mark Finkle, Mozilla platform evangelist, wrote in his blog. "We want you to be able to experiment, provide feedback, write add-ons and generally get involved with the Mozilla Mobile project, even if you don't have a device."
Mozilla is currently investigating the development of Fennec for other platforms as well, though not all mobile users -- notably, Research in Motion (RIM) BlackBerry users -- will be on the list.
"Mozilla is a member of the LiMo Foundation, and are evaluating Symbian and other platforms," Sullivan said. "We are not actively developing for RIM at this time."
Even with ports for other mobile platform, clawing its way into the overall market for mobile browsers may still be challenging. Many mobile carriers tend to lock their handheld devices to limit the ability of users to install applications of their choice, though that situation is changing. For instance, both the Apple iPhone and the Google-backed Android mobile operating system offer application "markets," where users can buy and download apps to add to their phones.
"The market for third-party application has opened up quite a lot, so we expect lots of users to download and install," Sullivan said. "We are also working on distribution in cases where it aligns with our values and mission."
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source- internetnews