Mozilla stops developing Firefox for Windows Mobile

According to foreign media reports, Mozilla has decided to stop developing Firefox Mobile browsers for Mobile phones running Windows Mobile operating systems.

Stuart Parmenter, mobile engineering manager of Mozilla, said in his blog on Monday, this is because Microsoft has closed the door to running local applications on smartphones running its new Windows Phone 7 series software.

Parmenter said Mozilla is preparing to develop a Firefox browser for the Windows Mobile platform. Mozilla once developed Firefox for Windows CE 6 so that it can make a good browser for Windows Phone 7. However, Mozilla cannot move forward without software development tools for local applications.

Microsoft announced at its Mix meeting last week that Microsoft will only support application development in the Silverlight runtime environment or Game development in the XNA Game Studio runtime environment. Microsoft will not allow third-party application developers to directly access the hardware of the mobile phone. Accessing mobile phone hardware will enable third-party developers to better utilize the potential of mobile phones.

Parmenter still wants Microsoft to provide Mozilla with a method to create Firefox for Windows Phone 7 Series operating systems. Mozilla believes that Windows Phone 7 Series looks interesting and can do well in this market.

Now Mozilla will focus on the Firefox browser for Android phones, the existing version of the Maemo system, and the operating system used by Nokia N900 mobile phones.

Mozilla said Firefox browser for Android is currently in the pre-alpha version, that is, it is still in the early stages of development. This version of Firefox has been optimized for Motorola's Droid and Google's Nexus One mobile phone.

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