Firefox Coming To Your Phone

Get ready to throw out that WAP browser on your mobile phone (if you haven’t already). The iPhone, with its fully-functioning Safari browser, showed us that mobile browsing need not be a compromise. Now, the folks at Mozilla are working on a mobile version of Firefox.

A Firefox Web browser already exists for the Nokia N800, but this effort will expand Firefox’s mobile reach to many more handsets, especially as they come standard with more memory. (64 MB of DRAM seems to be the minimum that will be required). Mobile Firefox won’t be available until next year, at the earliest. But just as on the desktop, it will be an open platform on top of which anyone can build add-on applications. And that’s good news for mobile computing.

The decision to throw Firefox into the mobile ring is just one more piece of evidence for something that is becoming increasingly clear: The phone is the computer.

As a Mac laptop user, I used Safari for years, until I switched to Firefox. At a certain point, it just eclipsed what I could do on Safari (primarily because of all the add-on applications that became available and the greater flexibility of the core browser). I expect the same thing will happen eventually in the mobile space—if Steve Jobs allows Firefox on the iPhone, that is.

But my guess is that he will have to because it will be available on other phones, and the iPhone will never be able to afford to be seen as lagging in the mobile browsing arena. Of course, this assumes that Firefox quickly will get to the point where it can provide a better mobile browsing experience than the mobile version of Safari. But judging by history, I think it will.

[via Techcrunch]

Nokia to Include Windows Live Services

Under the deal, Nokia will start offering Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger on its most powerful Series 60 handsets this year. Later in the year or early next year, the services will be made available on Series 40 phones. The services will initially be free, though the two companies may later charge for them, splitting the revenue.

"We look at where the market is," said Steve Berkowitz, senior vice president of Microsoft's online services business. "Nokia is the largest handset maker."

It's not the first sign of detente between the two companies. Nokia has for some time licensed Microsoft's ActiveSync technology for connecting to an Exchange e-mail server. Earlier this month, Nokia also said it had licensed Microsoft's PlayReady mobile digital rights management technology. The handset maker also includes Microsoft's Live Search in its mobile search service.

Berkowitz said Microsoft will continue to develop versions of Windows Live services for its own Windows Mobile operating systems as well as slimmed-down WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) versions that can run on a wide array of phones.

As for whether it would develop any sites tailored for Apple's iPhone, Berkowitz quipped, "If the iPhone were ever to get any distribution, maybe."

He added that the company will go where the marketplace and its customers demand. "Our best place to invest is where the reach is," he said. "Nokia is a great example of that."

The latest deal has been in the works for more than a year, the companies said.

"It's taken a bit of time and a bit of learning on both sides," said Nigel Rundström, Nokia's vice president of multimedia experiences.

iPhone ora ha un nemico, un grosso nemico

Roma - Ancora due settimane e l'iPhone vedrà la luce dei punti vendita negli USA. Nel frattempo, i suoi antagonisti affilano le armi per fronteggiarlo e, all'insegna del motto "l'unione fa la forza", danno vita a un'alleanza di enormi proporzioni, che configura un match inedito: iPhone contro Resto del Mondo.

Lo riferisce l'autorevole Financial Times: lo sfidante non è un music-phone, ma una soluzione che si propone di diventare il nuovo veicolo di diffusione di contenuti musicali, in alternativa al binomio iPhone-iTunes.

Il servizio si chiama MusicStation e ha muscoli da vendere, e spalle larghe e coperte. A lanciarlo è un consorzio senza precedenti voluto da Omnifone e formato da Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson e Samsung, nonché da una trentina di operatori telefonici e dalle principali major di settore: Universal, Emi, Warner e Sony.
L'alleanza punta in primis sul fronte del commercio musicale. Le aziende, a partire dall'estate che è ormai alle porte, stanno per lanciare sul mercato telefoni cellulari con preinstallata l'applicazione MusicStation, che potranno costare anche molto meno di un iPhone (i cui prezzi negli USA partono da 499 dollari).

Ambizioso l'obiettivo prefissato: vendere 100 milioni di telefonini Musicstation-enabled entro un anno. Si stima che i consumatori musicali effettuino mediamente il download di sei brani all'anno, ad un prezzo indicativo di una sterlina (circa 1,48 euro) a canzone. Le major si aspettano un'impennata del mercato, offrendo attraverso MusicStation un catalogo che consta di oltre un milione di brani disponibili per l'accesso illimitato, a fronte di un canone settimanale di 2,99 euro.

"Ci piace l'idea di tagliare il traguardo per primi - dice Rob Lewis, direttore generale di Omnifone - Tutti gli utenti europei e asiatici accederanno al servizio Musicstation prima che l'iPhone possa raggiungere quelle zone".

La prima compagnia telefonica ad offrire il servizio nel vecchio Continente sarà la svedese Telenor. Sul mercato italiano è verosimile prevedere lo sbarco di MusicStation per Natale, in tempo per fronteggiare l'iPhone.

Dario Bonacina Punto Informatico