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Mobile Firefox Almost Ready For Alpha Testing

Speaking in a recent interview, Mozilla CEO John Lilly said that the company's long-awaited entry into the mobile browser space is nearly ready for prime time. Mozilla will have Firefox Mobile out to alpha testers in 'weeks.'

Mozilla first promised to "rock the mobile Web" about a year ago. A lot has happened since then. Opera continues to update its mobile browsers. Microsoft is readying a new version of mobile Internet Explorer. Apple set the bar high (despite the lack of Flash) with its Safari browser on the iPhone. The HTC G1 Android phone has a very capable WebKit-based browser. And there are other start-ups, such as Skyfire, which are doing great things with the mobile browser.

What can Mozilla hope to achieve in this crowded field of players so late in the game? Lilly told the San Jose Mercury News, "We know we have to build a...great mobile [browser], or people won't care as much about our products. We want to make sure that the Web on mobile is more like the Web than what the mobile industry offers today, which is closed, separate networks and not a very good information-getting experience for the user. The first thing is to bring Firefox to mobile devices. We're working on that and we'll see some alphas in a few weeks."

That Mozilla is finally set to turn out an alpha release of its mobile browser is exciting. Lilly did not elaborate as to which mobile platforms this mobile browser will support first, though I won't be surprised if it is the Windows Mobile platform. He also didn't say how people can sign themselves up to be on the list of alpha testers (yo, Mozilla peeps, e-mail me!).

Hopefully, more details will unfold in the near future.

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