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Mozilla is abandoning development of versions of its Firefox mobile browser for Windows Mobile phones.
That includes the existing Windows Mobile 6.5 OS – for which Firefox has been in development for a while – as well as the upcoming Windows Phone 7 Series platform.
"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," wrote mobile team technical lead Stuart Parmenter in a blog.
"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."
Instead, Mozilla will focus its energies on building versions of Firefox for Android and Maemo – although it is assumed that if rival Opera Mini receives approval for iPhone, Mozilla may turn its attention to that platform too.
The news comes just days after another Mozilla staffer, Rob Sayre, wrote an open letter to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer asking him to release a native development kit for Windows Phone 7 Series.
