Doug Turner, the project leader of Minimo, the slimmed-down Mozilla browser, said Mozilla hopes to build on the success of Firefox.
"If Firefox is the greatest browser on the desktop, we need the greatest browser on devices and are working hard on it," Turner said.
Turner said there are two mobile phone companies that are already using Minimo. He would not reveal the names of the companies that it is working with, but he said there will be at least one announcement in the near future regarding a partnership with a television manufacturer.
"The focus over the last year and a half has been about going after the phone device and set-top manufacturers--showing them what we can do," Turner said. "We are being used, but companies have kept it quiet."
This industry will be harder to tackle than the desktop browser market, as manufacturers rather than consumers make the choice on which browser to use. "We can showcase things to consumers--to show them what they should get from their phone--but the bigger thing is to show the manufacturers that they can embed Mozilla into their device," Turner said.
Minimo developers have already found a solution to the problem of rendering Web pages on small devices. This feature was included in both version 0.1 and 0.2 of Minimo. Turner said this solution is already better than some products on the market.
"A lot of browsers ignore frames or have limited JavaScript support--they do terrible jobs," he said. "With Minimo, if it renders OK in Firefox, it will render OK in Minimo."
The technology works by shrinking less-important images, such as banner ads, and wrapping columns around to make a single column, so users only need to scroll vertically.
Minimo 0.3, due in January, will include improved Web page navigation for mobile phone users, Turner said. At present, phone users need to linearly tab through every link on the page to get to the right link, but the new technology will let people move between links on the Web page using the arrow keys.
"We have the proof of concept working right," Turner said. "The hard part is working out where the next closest link is--it is a hard math or computer-science problem. You need fuzzy logic."
For this technology to work, mobile phone manufacturers will need to map each arrow direction to an individual phone key. Minimo 0.3 will also automatically complete URLs as they are being typed in.
Developers also are working on a feature that would let people zoom in and out of Web pages, so they could easily find what they were looking for, Turner said. "If you go to the Web on a little screen, you don't have any idea of where everything is," he said. "For example, on a phone the 'Contact' link can be hard to find. If you could back out of the page it would be easier."
The first demonstration of this technology will likely be available before June, Turner said.
Minimo's main competitor in the mobile phone browsing market is Opera Software, which produces versions of its browser for various mobile phones including Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Panasonic and Siemens handsets.
But Turner said there is definitely a demand for an alternative to Opera from set-top box and phone manufacturers, which don't want to pay royalties. Another advantage of Minimo is that it is fully standards compliant and is compatible with various platforms.
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- Ah, but will you use Minimo?
- Are they the same thing? And, just out of curiosity, why did you post an essentially void comment? "I only use IE..." Great! Why? What's wrong with other products? Why are their advantages unper... (Read the rest)
- Posted by: Martin Marvinski Posted on: 12/09/04 You are currently: a Guest | Log in | Terms of Use
Sounds great
NonZealot | 12/08/04
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It would be great..
d_jedi | 12/08/04
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my guess...
John Le'Brecage | 12/08/04
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Imagine... Someone was making money on software.
Anton Philidor | 12/09/04
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I will not be using Monimo...
Grayson Peddie | 12/09/04
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Ah, but will you use Minimo?
Martin Marvinski | 12/09/04
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