It'll be a fabulous day when a cellphone-friendly version of Firefox finally lands, and judging by the video and details in the read link down there, that day is getting ever closer. Granted, this whole thing is being dubbed a "concept" for now, but we're definitely digging where it's headed. We're warning you, there's a boatload of information just one click away, but if you fear your eyes just can't handle it, peep the video after the break.

Following a new round of partnership announcements back in February, LiMo Foundation today added 8 new members, bringing the grand total to 40 -- and perhaps most notably, Verizon Wireless becomes the first American carrier to team up with the group and the Foundation's final board member (in other words, they seem to be taking this initiative pretty seriously). Other new players include South Korea's SK Telecom, France's SFR, Sagem, chipmaker Infineon, and Mozilla, suggesting that there'll be plenty of mobile Firefox support for LiMo's nascent platform. LiMo represents the largest Linux-based threat to Android's plans for world domination, having announced its initiative some time before Google while collecting a veritable who's-who of world players from NTT DoCoMo to manufacturers like LG and Motorola -- and with the depth of Verizon's commitment to this, evident by its nabbing of an actual board seat, we wouldn't be surprised to see LiMo-based products actually go beyond its Any Apps, Any Device initiative and get real on the carrier's official lineup.

Mozilla's pretty convinced that its official mobile version of Firefox is going to fundamentally change the game, and carriers appear ready to buy into the hype. We use the term "buy" here loosely, since mobile Firefox will be free just like every other version of Firefox out there -- a key selling point (again, forgive our nomenclature) against rival Opera in the battle for the hearts and minds of the mobile internet warriors running WinMo -- and that's what's got carriers so intrigued. On the one hand, any full fledged browser puts a carriers own profitable content deck at risk, but on the flip side, a fabulous browsing experience potentially leads to higher data revenues. At any rate, VP of engineering Mike Schroepfer says Mozilla's peeps are actively engaging manufacturers and carriers around the world in an effort to get them engaged, interested, and at the very least, unopposed to the idea of allowing it to be used on their devices. As Mozilla well knows, they're late (way late) to the mobile browser game, but we're still all about choice; let's hope carriers are, too.

[Via the::unwired]

First, the good news: Mozilla has officially announces plans to "rock" the mobile web. Now, the bad: the true, legitimate Mobile Firefox (as opposed to the hackery that is Minimo) won't come until after Firefox 3 is released. Mozilla's Mike Schroepfer has detailed where the organization's headed with its mobile initiatives in a blog post this week, noting that Mozilla 2 will see mobile devices be promoted to tier 1 -- a move that means architectural decisions about the platform will be made specifically with handsets in mind. Although he says Minimo provided tons of valuable info on how Mozilla can be adapted to the small screen, it's being basically abandoned in favor of the true Mobile Firefox, a browser that'll take advantage of the heavyweight processors and storage afforded by modern phones. Opera Mini, get ready (finally) for some serious competition.

[Via mocoNews]

With Opera having brought the closest thing to full web browsing to millions of Java-enabled handsets, are there other mobile browsers to be had? Sure there are -- Symbian, Palm and Windows Mobile users have many mobile browser options, including Opera Mobile, Pocket Internet Explorer and others. What about the slim and chic handset crowd that has Java only as their main wireless web conduit? Well, the popular and dare-we-say flexible Mozilla Firefox browser may be coming to mobile soon to sit alongside Opera's Opera Mobile offering (and Opera Mini, pretty-please), according to Mozilla Foundation CEO Mitchell Baker. The Minimo project, while useful, is not an official Mozilla project and should not be confused with Mozilla's long-term mobile product, according to Baker. Mozilla's official mobile Firefox browser client is still a ways off, and the existing Opera Mobile already has tabbed browsing. But, we'd love mobile browser extensions for a wireless-based Firefox browser. Wouldn't you?

[Via Boy Genius Report]