Mozilla promising an app store free mobile future

Coming soon to a mobile phone near you – the Firefox Mobile (otherwise known as Fennec) and with the promise, at least in Mozilla’s eyes, of no more App Stores. This of course is an obvious shot at Apple and its massively successful App Store.

They are basing this on the fact that Firefox Mobile will be launching with the fastest Javascript engine of any mobile browser and the belief that this will encourage developers to develop apps using Javascript and HTML instead of having to develop for each platform. In an interview with PC Pro Jay Sullivan, vice president of mobile at Mozilla said that anyone with knowledge of Javascript and HTML will be able to develop a great app.

Sullivan claims developers are frustrated by the difficulties of writing for multiple mobile platforms. “We look at the problems it creates for small innovators,” he said. “You have to create an iPhone app, an Android app, a Windows Mobile app…”

“As developers get more frustrated with quality assurance, the amount of handsets they have to buy, whether their security updates will get past the iPhone approval process… I think they’ll move to the web.”

Sullivan says it will take time to wean developers away from the app store model, which has been heralded as one of the chief reasons for the iPhone’s success. “In the interim period, apps will be very successful. Over time, the web will win because it always does.”

This of course is dependent on their being a viable ecosystem that will allow developers to make money since this is really the big driving force behind the success of the App Store.