FirefoxSummit/2006/ProposedSessions/FirefoxMobileCompanion

Firefox Mobile Companion

Led by Doug Turner

Quick notes on the discussion follows:

Lots of people have cell-phones with browsers - most don't use it Mobile web-browsing sucks

What would a "Mobile Companion for Firefox" be?

• Data on cell phone rather wirelessly accessible than USB stick (profile, passwords, calendar, etc.)
• Special formatting on phone for personal paginated data (Maps, photos, etc.)
• Plug-in per site to "compress" to mobile format (Google Maps, etc. - like http://www.google.com/xhtml)
• Does there have to be a client on the phone (Java, etc.) or are SMS, MMS, etc. sufficient? What about brand recognition on the phone? Maybe both?
• Voice services are strong in the US, not so much elsewhere (1800TELLME)
• Timeless loves Google and talks a lot.
• Bookmarks and password manager from Firefox should work on your phone
• Laptop is the current "home base" with all data, but is too big. Anything to bring your computing environment with you (autocomplete, history, notes, bookmarks, etc.) is good.
• Do people email driving directions (text version) to themselves so it can be accessed on their phone? Yes, some people do this.
• What about cell-network data-plans? Are they reasonable? Many people have unlimited data plans, but most seem not too.
• Browsers on phones suck and the content on the internet is not designed for small screens
• Nokia S60 browser (built with web-kit) does interesting zooming interface
• Encourage web developers to create mobile-friendly sites (W3C has an initiative for this)
• Store snippets of text from web browser pages and have them show up on your phone.
• WAP is dead and those who want to keep it alive should die too
• Operator silos suck because they lock you into set sites
• More phones are shipping with "real" browsers
• Games? They are huge on phones, could Firefox/Minimo bring in games?
• Games/apps need to be "signed" or unlocked to run on phones
• Should we aim for all phones everywhere, or focus on certain markets with special advantages (phones, networks, etc.)?
• PDF, XLS, MOV, AVI viewer/player/download support is weak on mobile phones. This browser, if version planned for java based smartphones like Blackberry, should address these problems. Pocket PC Phone/Pocket IE/Win mobile smartphones have other browsers and phones beat on this capability.
• Browser must support OTA software installation.