Mozilla is in informal talks with mobile operators about its mobile Firefox project, which the organization hopes will shake up the market as much as the introduction of the desktop browser did in 2004. "Mozilla"s mission is to break open a closed market," said Mike Schroepfer, Mozilla"s vice president of engineering, during a visit to London earlier this week. But "it won"t happen overnight."
The impact, however, will be felt before year"s end. By then, Mozilla is aiming to release a mobile browser for two operating systems: embedded Linux and Microsoft"s Windows Mobile. At this point, operators and carriers "want to know how much it will cost," Schroepfer said. That"s an easy answer: mobile Firefox will be free, Schroepfer said.