Firefox could soon be in a pocket near you thanks to the development of Firefox Mobile. A bite-size version of Mozilla’s hugely popular Firefox web browser, Firefox Mobile (codenamed Fennec) is now available to download for select smartphones.

Firefox Mobile works in much the same way as Firefox 3 for PC/Mac/Linux. Forget about the status quo address bar, FM utilizes the “Awesome Bar”. To minimize typing, it remembers sites you’ve visited in the past, bookmarks you’ve saved and also handles search queries, all from one place.

FM’s “Weave Sync” feature transfers your browsing session from your PC to your phone, keeping your open tabs, history, and bookmarks intact.

One of the biggest reasons for the popularity of the desktop version of Firefox 3 is customization. Downloadable add-ons and extensions make the browsing experience unique for each user; FM operates in the same way, with over 700 add-ons and extensions supported.

With support for CSS3 and HTML5, FM scales full websites down to an easy to read mobile version, without altering the overall layout.

Relatively full featured mobile versions of popular browsers like Firefox Mobile show that small devices can allow the web to be used as easily and with the same features and functionality as desktop versions.

High-speed cellular data networks like 3G are becoming enough of a standard that the days of developing basic, text only mobile versions of websites could soon be a thing of the past.

Like any new software, there are some kinks that need to be worked out. The biggest kink may be the browser’s lack of Flash support. Unlike the mobile version of Safari, Apple’s iPhone browser, Mozilla’s lack of Flash in FM 1.0 is probably only temporary as earlier releases of FM supported it. Expect future versions of FM to have Flash capability and other mobile browsers to quiver in their boots.

As of now, a final release of Firefox Mobile 1.0 is only available for Nokia’s Linux-based N900 smartphone. For those using Windows Mobile, an early development version is available.

Mozilla’s wiki shows they are tuned in to the growing number of smartphones supporting Google’s Android OS. An Android-compatible version is in the works.

Though Firefox Mobile may not be revolutionary in its current form, once it gets Flash support, it could be the frontrunner in an upcoming battle for mobile browser supremacy. Smartphones may soon be saying “I can do anything you can do” to their desktop counterpart.

How does Firefox Mobile affect me?
It shows the beginning of a transition from catering to mobile device browsing through a separate, slimmed-down, feature-lacking site to mobile devices adapting full-size, feature-rich sites for their own purposes. Thus, streamlining online identities from two sites to one.

For more information or to download, visit: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/mobile/