Fennec Alpha 3 for Windows Mobile
We're very happy to announce the availability of Fennec Alpha 3 for Windows Mobile. There are lots of great features and fixes included in this release. You can find the release notes here and a cab installer here. Personally, I'm turning off my iPhone …
Context & Ripple Effects
This alpha builds directly on the Fennec milestone release for Windows Mobile that landed in February 2009, moving Mozilla's mobile browser from proof-of-concept to a testable build with a cab installer and published release notes.
The announcement traveled narrowly — no syndicated pickups or public discussion threads are recorded around September 5, 2009 — so its signal comes mainly from the author's own commitment: he writes that he is turning off his iPhone to run Fennec on Windows Mobile day-to-day, a notable vote of confidence given the iPhone's grip on early smartphone mindshare.
First-order effects
- Windows Mobile users get a working Gecko-based browser to install today via the cab file, with the release notes documenting the feature and fix set relative to the February milestone.
- The announcement author personally switching from an iPhone to a Windows Mobile handset makes him an in-house daily user, which typically surfaces real-device bugs faster than emulator testing.
Second-order effects
- A competitive third-party browser on Windows Mobile raises the bar for whatever browser Microsoft ships preinstalled on the platform, since users now have a side-by-side alternative on the same hardware.
- Mozilla validating Windows Mobile as a target keeps pressure on the broader mobile-browser field, where each new platform port widens the pool of devices on which users can compare rendering quality.
Third-order effects
- If Fennec keeps shipping across platforms, the structural direction is mobile browsing consolidating around desktop-grade rendering engines rather than per-platform lightweight browsers — with Mozilla positioning one engine across multiple phone operating systems.
- Platform vendors whose bundled browsers lose on-feature comparisons face growing user expectation that any handset can run the same full web, eroding the value of browser exclusivity as a lock-in point.
The trend: Mobile browsing is converging on desktop-class rendering engines carried across phone platforms, and Fennec's Windows Mobile builds are Mozilla's data point in that shift.