Firefox Mobile For Windows Mobile On Hold

[Nurhisham Hussein]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://blog.pavlov.net/2010/03/22/stopping-development-for-windows-mobile/' target='_blank'>http://blog.pavlov.net/2010/03/22/s...windows-mobile/</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"While we think Windows Phone 7 looks interesting and has the potential to do well in the market, Microsoft has unfortunately decided to close off development to native applications. Because of this, we won't be able to provide Firefox for Windows Phone 7 at this time. Given that Microsoft is staking their future in mobile on Windows Mobile 7 (not 6.5) and because we don't know if or when Microsoft will release a native development kit, we are putting our Windows Mobile development on hold."</em></p><p>No real surprise here, it was just a matter of time. Microsoft's lockdown of development for WP7S was bound to drive a few developers away, at least until the platform had proved itself. In Mozilla's case, with native code off-limits, there wasn't much choice. While the IE browser on WP7S might be all it promises to be, having choices helps drive innovation and improvement. Here's hoping for an eventual return - Firefox Mobile was shaping up to be a contender.</p>

[Russ Smith]

As you said, "No real surprise here."
This is the sort of thing I've been expecting to see since MS started talking total re-writes with no backward compatibility for apps.

At first I was thinking about my investment in apps over the years, but imagine the time, effort, and expense developers have put into WM development only to have to start over again if they want a WP7 version. I wonder how the new developers will balance out against the old developers who are in a "wait-and-see" hold pattern.

[alese]

I expect developers will wait to see if the new OS caches on, before investing time and money into a new platform.
If WP7S is successful, I guess it will take at least a year (probably more) before we start seeing "real" applications, for instance Android is only now getting more and better applications, and the platform is shapin up to be a huge success.