Mozilla has been making some noises about porting its Firefox web browser to Android. Until fairly recently this wasn;t do-able given that Android applications ran on Google’s Java virtual machine, but with the release of the NDK 1.0 (Native Development Kit) apps can run on Android itself. Mozilla had previously commented that because of the Java restriction it wasn’t paying serious attention to Android, but the path is very much clear now.

Given Android’s popularity on the desktop and the still relatively open space that is the mobile browser market Firefox could establish itself as a major force on mobile phones. Indeed Jay Sullivan, Mozilla Vice-President of Mobile, said “Developers are taking a look at the NDK to see if it provides the capabilities we need to bring Fennec to Android. If it’s possible, I think our community would be interested in doing it, because Android will be appearing on more smartphones with the capabilities to provide a good browsing experience.”