Mozilla have released a pre-alpha build of it’s popular Firefox browser for Android devices. The browser, previously known under the Fennec codename, has been released to gather feedback from the Android community.

This news comes just a month after Mozilla announced it was putting Windows Mobile development on hold, and shows there is still life in the mobile version of Firefox outside of Windows Mobile and Nokia Maemo devices.

So far, the browser is only confirmed to be working on the Motorola Droid and Google Nexus One at this early stage of development.

Vladimir Vukićević has stated that this early build has poor memory management, and this build requires Android 2.0 or above, and likely an OpenGL ES 2.0 capable device. This is on top of a few other smaller issues.

Firefox for Android can be downloaded from http://bit.ly/fennec-android.

The announcement is no surprise, with the announcement of Windows Phone 7 series expected to limit the device to just Internet Explorer on it’s mobile devices, much like Apple has done with it’s iPhone.

“We have been building a version of Firefox for Windows Mobile for quite a while, with the expectation that Microsoft would be doubling down in the mobile market and hoping that they would put out a great new mobile operating system” wrote Mozilla Mobile Team Technical Lead, Stuart Parmenter.

“While we think Windows Phone 7 looks interesting and has the potential to do well in the market, Microsoft has unfortunately decided to close off development to native applications.  Because of this, we won’t be able to provide Firefox for Windows Phone 7 at this time” continued Parmenter.

All hope isn’t totally lost, with Parmeter adding “while I hope that we do see Microsoft provide us with a way to build Firefox for Windows Phone 7, we will continue to focus on the things that we can control: building a great consumer product on both Android and Maemo.”

Firefox Mobile is almost a direct port of it’s big brother Firefox, with a completely redesigned user interface for touch screens.

The browser includes the awesome bar, a download manager, early HTML5 support, tabbed browsing, add on support, safe browsing, and is currently available in over 30 languages.

Firefox Mobile can be downloaded and installed on the Nokia N900, with more Maemo devices expected on the market soon.

Firefox Mobile RC 1 (formerly known as Fennec) is now available for Nokia’s Maemo mobile platform.

This includes devices such as the Nokia N900 and N810.

Firefox Mobile is essentially Firefox 3.5 under the hod, with a new graphical user interface for the mobile device. This means that you get the same rendering engine (supporting some HTML5 elements), the awesome bar, spell check, and a download manager.

Currently available in over 15 languages, an updated Windows Mobile version is expected in a few weeks.

A full list of changes can be found in the release notes, while the browser can be downloaded from the Firefox Mobile website.

Developer versions are also available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Changes since beta 3 include:

• Build now works on the N900
• Streamlined bookmarking, editing, and management
• Install and manage search engines
• Improved touch-friendly theme
• Improved panning and zooming performance
• Support for add-on options in the Add-ons Manager
• Integration with Maemo5 system UI controls
• Notification of tabs opened in the background
• Numerous other bugs and polish issues addressed

Download links can be found in the Fennec Beta 4 release notes. Fennec is the mobile version of Firefox, and is set to be released some time in 2010.

“We’ve made big improvements to kinetic panning and added the ability to scroll iframes. A lot of work has been done to make our theme more robust, taking advantage of things like media queries to support various devices, orientations, and platforms which you’ll see more of in the next Windows Mobile release. Overall, this beta is a major improvement to previous Fennec betas” said Stuart Parmenter, Mozilla’s director of mobile engineering.

Full details of all changes, plus download links can be found in the release notes.

Fennec Beta 2 for Nokia devices includes a new theme, built-in JavaScript error console, and improved add-on support. Full changes can be found in the release notes.

For the Windows Mobile users, Fennec Alpha 2 increases performance, polishes the user interface, plus a list of other changes in the release notes.

Download Fennec Beta 2 (“Maemo”) for Nokia devices
Download Fennec Alpha 2 for Windows Mobile

Firefox had a steady month, still with its 22.5% share. Apple’s Safari has jumped from 8.2% to 8.4% this month, while Google Chrome has seen a jump from 1.4% to 1.8%.

Opera has also stayed steady, with 0.7% of the pie. Microsoft should be concerning, with the recent release of Internet Explorer 8 hoping to patch the trickle of users flocking to other browsers.

The full detailed statistics for May’s results are available online.

This new release worked with Windows Mobile 6 devices and includes new memory management technology (the same used in Firefox), a user interface designed with CSS, and support for add-ons.

A full list of known bugs, changes since pre-alpha builds, and installation instructions can be found in the release notes.