Mozilla Girds for Mobile Browser Warfare

Amid high demand for Firefox 3, Mozilla prepares its open-source software to take on Microsoft, Google, and a world of cell-phone confusion

When Mozilla releases its Firefox 3 browser update June 17, it hopes to set the first-ever Guinness world record for number of Internet software downloads in 24 hours. The target: 5 million. That would be quite a feat, since the last Firefox update netted just 1.6 million downloads. But it’s no mission impossible. Firefox 3 speeds up browsing and adds a host of improvements, including the ability to adapt to your preferences as you use it. Over the past half-decade, Mozilla, an open-source software company, has gained grassroots support from some 170 million users and amassed an 18% worldwide market share, according to Web metrics outfit Net Applications. In the process, it has broken Microsoft’s (MSFT) grip on the critical browser market.

Yet just as Mozilla girds for download madness, Web browsing is entering a new phase: It’s about to explode on cell phones.

Full article: businessweek.com