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There will be no fully featured Firefox browser for the iPhone due to technical and logistical problems, Mozilla has announced.
Instead, if you’re looking for access to your Firefox data — history, bookmarks and tabs — on the iPhone, you’ll have to make do with an app called Firefox Home.
The app will be updated in the future, and will include better integration with iOS4. Mozilla said it was also making plans to bring Firefox Home to BlackBerry and Symbian.
Mozilla does have a prototype dedicated mobile browser, called Fennec, but it won’t ever be on the iPhone simply because it would have to completely rewrite its code to get it into the App Store. Fennec isn’t available for BlackBerry or Symbian either, which is why they’re also being sent Home.
You can only download Fennec if you’re on Android or Maemo (which has since been subsumed into MeeGo). You can download an Alpha version of Fennec, but you’ll need Android 2.0 and above, or a Nokia N900. Fennec was recently renumbered from version 2 to 4 to keep it in step with Firefox on the desktop.
Fennec also syncs your desktop history, passwords and bookmarks, but it allows you to search from the Firefox awesome bar, and customise just like you can on the desktop.
As far as Apple users are concerned, it’s hardly a tragedy that you won’t ever see a Firefox browser, as Safari is perfectly fine. There are also other options, such as Opera Mini. But the fact that Android owners can use it shows the benefits of having a much more open operating system.
Do any of you use Firefox Home for iPhone, or have you tried Fennec for Android? Let us know what you think.
