Mozilla Foundation, the intelligent team behind one of the most successful browser, FireFox, unleashed their first ever mobile browser, for smartphone's running on Google's Android Operating System. Mozilla tagged Fennec 2.0 as the alpha version for Android platforms as well as for the Nokia N900.
The browser is built on the same Gecko engine which powers the much famous Firefox 4. Stuart Parmenter, Mozilla's Mobile Team Technical Lead, told via blog post:
This release includes Electrolysis, which allows the browser interface to run in a separate process from the one rendering Web content. By doing this, Fennec is able to react much faster to user input while pages are loading or CPU intensive JavaScript is running.
Electrolysis separates the UI and rendering processes which in return delivers faster response while working on Layers improves the scrolling, animation and video performance. Fennec 2.0 has been made compatible with almost all Android based smartphones, except those edition which has been discontinued such as the Nexus One, HTC Desire, Droid Incredible, EVO 4G etc.
Fennec Features: Support For Add-Ons, Awesome Bar Browsing History, Bookmarks, Passwords, Form Fill Data, Open Tabs.
Currently the browser market for Android handsets is under the influence of Dolphin HD and Opera Mini Browsers. We might need to wait for sometime to register any place for Mozilla's child.
One challenge which the Android OS supported browser might need to face is its greater access to the Android Marketplace. Currently the Fennec browser is available for download on Mozilla's official website which means Android Smartphone users need to enable non-market applications in the preferences in order to install it. A few handsets wouldn't be able to download the Fennec browser due to non-availability of the non-market option.
via [Mozilla Blog]
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