Mobile/FennecVision

Purpose of this document

This document describes the vision statement for Firefox on mobile devices (code name "Fennec") and the key release themes that flow from that vision, in order of priority. Then, it proposes a guiding principle: that we leverage our unique market position and assets to create experiences -- for users and developers -- that haven't been possible to date. We're not out to create a me-too browser, we're out to bring the Web to mobile phones in a richer, broader way than has been achieved before.

Vision statement

Fennec will provide full access to the Web from phones and other non-PC devices, yet take advantage of the specific opportunities for new and useful user experiences enabled by mobility and telephony. Fennec will do what users need out of the box, including easy initiation of phone calls from Web pages, access to local search, maps and directions, and plug-ins they expect. It will solve basic usability challenges that prevent the mobile Web experience from being pleasant and enjoyable, even though people have a critical need for data when on the go.

Fennec will be the mobile Web browser that content and application developers can target to create great software for mobile phones, rather than the plethora of native platforms and programming languages required to reach people in a mobile environment today. Any developer with skills in HTML, CSS and JavaScript will be able to develop for mobile.

Key themes

The purpose of defining a set of release themes is to guide our development, and specifically to help us set release criteria and to make trade-offs where two things we value come in conflict with each other and we need to pick one.

We aim to embody the values and design principles that make the desktop version of Firefox successful, but with an implementation appropriate to the mobile environment.

In priority order, here are the key themes of the first Fennec release:

1. Simple, fast navigation to Web content - Attention must be given to very basic operations that are still hard to accomplish on most mobile phones, like entering URLs, managing bookmarks, providing an equivalent to multiple windows/tabs, designing zooming and scrolling to achieve readability; we will need to question assumptions about how people use the Web when they're on the go, and not view the UI as a "port" of desktop Firefox.

2. The real Web - Fennec will provide access to the "full" Web from phones and other non-PC devices. Web content developers should be able to optimize to smaller screen sizes, etc., but not be required to adopt alternate technologies.

3. Secure - Providing a powerful desktop browser engine with full implementation of JavaScript, AJAX, and other advanced web technologies could open a phone up to exploits which could be more costly and more invasive than PC exploits; security will need to be a key consideration from day one.

4. A "whole product" for mobile - Subject to the security constraints above, Fennec should strive to integrate as much as possible with a phone's mapping application, have the ability to initiate phone calls from phone numbers in Web pages, have access to location information through, and integrate with contacts and calendar items. We should work to ensure that critical mass of necessary plug-ins work out of the box.

5. Support for add-ons - A key strength of Firefox is its support for third-party innovation through Add-ons. Fennec should support Add-ons as well to enable a whole new community of developers to have access to the mobile platform.

The rationale behind the prioritization is this: If we have addressed themes 1-3, and created a super easy-to-use browser that works on a majority of Web sites and is secure, a case could be made to ship without all of the phone hooks and Add-on support exemplified by items 4 and 5.