Rise in Mobile Browsing Drives Firefox, Opera to Upgrade Android User Interface

Appolicious Android (News - Alert) Apps site reports that the rise in mobile web browsing is driving browser makers like Forefox and Opera to upgrade Android user interface (UI) to become more competitive in this growing marketplace. As a result, according to Appolicious reporter Kristen Nicole, Firefox is making efforts in the mobile space to remain competitive. In this report, Nicole wrote Firefox is now developing a native Android interface for faster performance with less memory use. Meanwhile, Firefox also continues to work hard to remain useful in the PC web browsing space.

According to Appolicious report, Mozilla (News - Alert) is settling on a Firefox UI built using native code called XUL instead of its XML-based language. Nicole wrote that “for Android users, Firefox’s use of native code means greater responsiveness.”  While these upgrade will not be visible in the upcoming Firefox 8 or 9, which are slated for release before the year end, it is expected to be available later.

The Register (News - Alert) reports director of Firefox engineering Johnathan Nightingale as saying "Firefox on Android is a critical part of supporting the open web, and this decision puts us in a position to build the best Firefox possible."

The Register reporter Gavin Clarke wrote that a native Firefox UI will mean start-up times of fractions of a second compared to several seconds for a XUL user interface on certain Android-powered phones. Furthermore, according to Clarke, the move to a native UI comes as Firefox begins to feel pressure from Google's (News - Alert) Chrome. As per the report, Firefox's market-share growth has plateaued lately while that of the Google browser continues to grow.

Likewise Opera, a browser company that has built its business on mobile surfing, is also preparing a major launch in 2012. According to Nicole, “It will combine aspects of Opera Mini and Opera Mobile. Thus, redefining the company’s mobile strategy using Android. The hybrid approach, called Opera with Turbo for Android, will detect when the network is strained, switching to Mini to lessen the data-transfer burden. It should simplify product options for Android users, which are as varied as the devices they use. It seems both Firefox and Opera are looking to leverage Android’s built-in upgrades to improve their own products, appealing to consumers with products that require even less on their part.

But, wrote Nicole, mobile browsing has opened the doors to cyber attacks as well. Georgia Tech’s emerging cyber threats report for 2012 indicates that vulnerabilities in mobile web browsers presents a threat to smartphone security, resulting in more attacks in the coming year.