Firefox support for Windows Phone 7 'on hold'

Mozilla has announced that it will put Firefox support for Windows Phone 7 devices on hold.

Stuart Parmenter, from the Firefox development team, said in a blog post that Mozilla has been working on support for Windows Mobile 6.5, and intends to transfer that platform to Windows Phone 7 Series later this year rather than develop a native build.

"We know that the underlying platform for Windows Phone 7 is Windows CE 6, which is a big step up from the kernel used by Windows Mobile 6.5," he wrote.

"Windows CE 6 is a platform that we have been developing towards, and already run well on, leaving us well positioned to have an awesome browser on Windows Phone 7."

The Firefox team believes that Windows Phone 7 looks good, but blames Microsoft for closing off development to native applications.

"Because of this, we won't be able to provide Firefox for Windows Phone 7," said Parmenter. "We don't know if or when Microsoft will release a native development kit, and we are putting our Windows Mobile development on hold."

Mozilla will focus its efforts instead on Google's Android and Nokia's Maemo because this gives the company an element of control.