10 November 2008

Jay Sullivan Mozilla's Mobile Director
Talks About Future and Key Features of Fennec

Last month, Mozilla, the nonprofit organization behind Firefox, has rolled out an "alpha" version of Fennec, the long awaited mobile version of the Firefox their very popular desktop browser.

This early release is only available for Nokia’s Linux based Maemo platform and it lets programmers play with the interface, catch bugs, and write add-on features, says Jay Sullivan, vice president of mobile at Mozilla.

Fennec is hardly consumer ready: it currently operates only on the somewhat bulky Nokia N810 Internet tablet, and there are plenty of bugs and interface challenges to iron out, says Sullivan. But he added that by the first part of 2009, fully backed Fennec mobile browser could be ready to run on consumer smartphones.

So far, says Sullivan, the feedback from the developers toying with Fennec has been positive. Early tests of the browser show its JavaScript performance, a measure of speed, will be competitive with the Android and mobile Safari JavaScript performance, Sullivan says.

But Mozilla still faces the challenge of distributing Fennec. Apple, Microsoft, and Google all have direct channels for distribution--operating systems for Internet-enabled phones. But Mozilla's path will require securing deals with other manufacturers and operating-system makers to ensure compatibility. While it's easy to upload software on a desktop computer, handset makers and cellular providers tightly control the software that can run on their handsets. For instance, Apple has kept other third-party Web browsers off the iPhone App Store.

One of the main goals, Sullivan says, was to "give over the entire screen of the device to the Web content, removing all user-interface controls entirely." Using a touch-screen interface, a user drags her finger to the right to reveal open tabs, and to the left to reveal controls such as the back button and the address bar.

Teo: Mobile phones screens are usually small and full screen mode is a must have feature actually, no matter is it touch or no, mobile browser has to be equipped with full screen mode and easily accessible commands. The full screen mode has the advantage of affording a virtual space not occupied by anything, no buttons, no titles, no URLs, absolutely nothing but the web page.

In addition, Mozilla designers have incorporated what they call the Awesome Bar--the smart address bar from the desktop version of Firefox that guesses which page a user wants when she types a letter or two, based on her bookmarks and browsing history. This feature has enhanced Fennec, says Sullivan, because typing on the browser is especially awkward. So Fennec's Awesome Bar also infers when a person is typing keywords for a Web search.

Teo: 'Awesome Bar', wow it sounds great I have to admit but to be totally honest with you I am not impressed with this feature, it is not that innovative and most of the browsers support this nowadays including the default browser on Nokia S60 devices so ‘Awesome Bar’ will not be one of the killer features that will push the Fennec popularity!

Moreover, Fennec will be able to work with a Firefox research project called Weave that allows a person to remotely access his desktop Web-browsing history, bookmarks, and other preferences. "One of my goals with Fennec is to leverage the number of Firefox users we have on the desktop," Sullivan says.

Teo: This project Weave sounds very handy indeed and will be extremely helpful to users that use desktop version of the Firefox and switching from full desktop to mobile browsing environment will be much easier with this feature.

Future versions of the phone might even include a haptic interface, Sullivan says, meaning that the phone would vibrate, for example, when a user touches a button on its screen. "In the future, I think there's some stuff there to make interactions feel more natural," he adds, "to provide a sense of confirmation when you've clicked a button or when you're doing a drag-and-drop function." Voice control might be further off into the future, however. "I don't know if the technology is quite there yet," Sullivan says. "And we also need to be sensitive to licensing issues, as the most popular speech engines aren't necessarily royalty-free."

Teo: What? “might even include a haptic interface” it is a must on touch screens in my personal opinion and this is the feature that has to be there since the very first version! Touchscreen is great but unfortunately, when you touch it dose not touch you back and therefore it is necessary to implement some kind of haptic feedback to help user to interact with the application and user interface! Actually, combination of the visual, audio and vibro feedback is the great combination which puts browsing on touch screens on entirely new level!! Voice controls are undoubtedly cool, but I wouldn't qualify this as a must feature, although it is maybe simple to tell “BACK” than find the button and click it!

"I think Fennec has a good chance," says Jeffrey Hammond, mobile analyst at Forrester Research. "The first question you have to ask is what platforms we expect to see in the mobile space, and from a smart-phone perspective, I think it's a reasonable assumption that RIM, Windows Mobile, Symbian, iPhone OS, and Android all have a lot of momentum right now." However, Hammond suspects that Fennec could find a footing on the Symbian operating system, which powers Nokia devices.

Teo: Well, Windows Mobile, iPhone OS as well as an Android force their own in house browsers and I don’t think they’ll be happy with the Fennec but from other hand Symbian is totally open in this area and users are able to install and use whatever they want without any kind of limitations and restriction. So I am quite sure that Fennec has pretty good perspective and can be pretty popular on the S60 devices no matter thy are equipped with great default Safari based browser.