Mozilla Firefox Mobile Threatens the Future of App Stores

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In just 18 months we have become pretty used to App Stores. The trend set by Apple was quickly followed by everyone else in the business and we’re probably going to see plenty of app store solutions in the near future. But will modern mobile browsers slowly kill app stores? Will we end up relying on web apps capable to run in certain browser, just as Chrome OS proposes?

It looks like Mozilla is confident that will happen at some point in the future. Fennec is the codename for Firefox Mobile and the new mobile browser should be available soon for multiple platforms. Available at first on the Nokia N900, Fennec will quickly arrive to Windows Mobile and Android phones.

Firefox Mobile has apparently the fastest Javascript engine which means that developers could create apps for the browser instead of making different versions of the app for different platforms. Such an endeavor makes sense but will it be achieved anytime soon? Will we see developers start making apps ready to run in browsers or will they prefer to make individual apps for every different environment.

Mozilla’s concept is definitely worth checking out. The only problem is that not every phone manufacturer out there will be interested in using Fennec as the default browser.

Fennec promises a lot of features for a mobile browser. Those of you already used to browse the Internet using Mozilla Firefox will find Fennec very similar. The Awesome Bar is still there, bookmarks and browsing history are going to be available too and the mobile browser can be synchronized to your desktop. That way you will be able to keep browsing through the same sites even if you have to leave the computer as the syncing is done in real time.

Firefox Mobile will also support browser add-ons and multiple tab support which means that our mobile Internet browsing experience should be fairly similar to our desktop Internet browsing experience. Does that mean web apps will take over in the very near future?

It remains to be seen if Fennec can be a fast and stable universal mobile browser solution before we’re ready to replace regular apps and app stores with web based apps and new concept stores.