John Lilly will step down as CEO of Mozilla Corporation after just two years on the job, the company confirmed today after a report by BoomTown. Mozilla is carefully calling the move as a “planned leadership transition,” saying Lilly had always wanted to be a VC.
Firefox Mobile for Maemo arrived last month, but without many devices to take advantage of it, people are wondering which platform will be the next one to see Mozilla’s browser. Microsoft’s clean break with Windows Phone 7 just might push Mozilla to Android first.
With little or no chance of ever being able to make it through the draconian approval process of Apple’s (s AAPL) iTunes App Store, Mozilla, the not-for-profit organization behind the Firefox browser, is betting on two major, if emerging, mobile operating platforms: Maemo, Nokia’s (s nok) new Linux-based operating system, and Google’s (s goog) Android OS. But don’t count on Mozilla supporting RIM’s (s rimm) BlackBerry OS anytime soon.
This weekend, during my onstage interview with Mozilla CEO John Lilly, I asked him what his plans were to get Firefox going on mobiles, especially since Webkit had gained so much attention and market share. “It is a different day, same story on the mobile as it was on the desktop,” Lilly quipped. On the desktop, Firefox continues to try to disrupt the entrenched incumbent, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Read More about On Mobile Phones, Firefox’s Big Bet Is Nokia & Android
For much of this decade, Mozilla and its Firefox browser were the upstarts, out to beat the big, bad Microsoft and its Internet Explorer browser. Firefox, the descendant of Netscape, the browser that helped jump-start the web revolution, was nimble and it was secure — something Microsoft’s (s msft) IE wasn’t. And it triggered a movement. According to Net Applications, which tracks browser market share, as of the end of May, Mozilla accounted for some 22 percent of the browser market. Microsoft’s IE, by comparison, still holds a roughly 66 percent share. [digg=http://digg.com/tech_news/For_Firefox_a_Challenging_Future_Awaits]
Despite it success, the open-source browser maker finds itself in an all familiar situation: fighting the odds on multiple fronts. Unlike the past when it had to contend just with Microsoft, Mozilla’s competition has grown many fold. Furthermore, the browser battleground has grown much bigger and now also includes mobile devices. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8, Apple’s (s aapl) Safari 4.0, Google’s (s goog) Chrome, Opera and Firefox are the five major competitors on the desktop, while WebKit-based browsers are the champions of the mobile world. Last week, when Mozilla announced its new Firefox 3.5 browser software, I decided to reach out to CEO John Lilly for a quick conversation about the state of the browser market. After all, Firefox’s latest browser comes at a time when Google, Apple and Microsoft have all upped the ante in the browser marketplace. Read More about For Firefox, a Challenging Future Awaits
In response to today’s news that Google is releasing its own browser, code-named Chrome, I decide to call John Lilly, CEO of Mozilla Corp., the folks behind the fast-growing Firefox browser. My intention was to find out what Lilly thought about this development, especially since Mozilla has been viewed as close personal partner of Google’s.
The open-source browser maker depends heavily on a lucrative financial deal it has signed with the search company. The pair recently renewed the deal to last through 2011. Was Lilly worried about yet another browser in the market? [digg=http://digg.com/tech_news/Mozilla_Not_Worried_About_Google_new_browser]
After all, the emergence of Linux has had an equally deflationary impact on the UNIX market. Can a Google browser, promoted on Google homepage and pushed through Google’s mobile OS, become a sticky wicket for Mozilla Firefox?
Sure it’s early days in the mobile browser wars, but early days have a tendency to fly by quickly, and by the time Firefox introduces a beta version of its upcoming mobile browser later this year, it may be too late. Last night Aza Raskin, head of user experience for Mozilla Labs, posted a demo of the forthcoming mobile browser along with some ideas and features he’s thinking about. He has some good ones. But he also has a large blind spot in that he says it’s designed for a touch phone. Read More about Will Firefox Mobile Make It in Time?
It may have taken some time, but I finally got a chance to sit down with John Lilly, the newly appointed CEO of Mozilla Corp. We chatted about everything from Mozilla’s late entry into mobile browsing to shortcomings of today’s browsers and Firefox 3.0. Listen for a jab at the iPhone, as well. Continue Reading
