The big news of the last week was – Opera Mini is in the AppStore. Soon afterwards, it hit the first spot in top lists of AppStores worldwide, and then we heard Skyfire is ready to follow the example.
That made me wonder – what’s happening with other mobile web browser developers such as Mozilla (Firefox), Bitstream (BOLT) and ACCESS (NetFront)? Do they plan to release their own iPhone apps?
The short answer is – “No!” The longer answer is as follows:
Mozilla: “Our understanding of browsers in the iPhone App Store is that a ‘full’ Web browser like Firefox that incorporates its own Web rendering and JavaScript engines would be prohibited. We have no insight into any arrangement between Apple and Opera,” said Jay Sullivan, Mozilla’s vice president of product.
Bitstream: “Inside Bitstream they are discussing where to take Bolt next, but for the moment are steadfastly focused on perfecting the mobile Internet experience on J2ME, BREW (right now BREW just for handset manufacturers) and BlackBerry devices,” said the company’s representative.
ACCESS: “They do not have any plans surrounding the availability of NetFront for the iPhone which they can discuss at the moment,” according to an Access representative.
The way I see it, it’s always a good thing to have a competition in any market, web browsers included. However, I’m not sure that many people will actually end up using some other non-Safari browser after some time. Maybe Opera Mini, cause it can be faster and more affordable on non-unlimited data plans or when roaming. On the other hand, Skyfire could bring some kind of Flash support to the platform, which is good news… Any thoughts?
[Via: FierceMobileContent]