Can Windows Phone 7 survive without Firefox Mobile?

Christopher Blizzard, Mozilla's Director of  Developer relations, recently re-confirmed that his company's Firefox mobile browser will not be developed for the Windows Phone 7 platform. According to Blizzard, Microsoft wanted the browser to be made available via Windows Marketplace for Mobile and where the Redmond based firm could have veto power over the software. Blizzard said, "They're gonna ship some version of IE which is gonna be terrible..." The executive also said, "We were going to do Windows Mobile because Windows Mobile needed a good browser, but they (Microsoft) shut down their platform." For the record, Windows Phone will have some good browsers available for the OS. Skyfire and Opera are two outstanding third party browsers that will give IE a run for its money. Skyfire has been downloaded more than 500,000 times in the Android Market, as we reported, and says that video looks better on its browser than it does on flash. And as we informed you, Opera Mini for the iPhone was downloaded about 2.6 million times this past April alone. While both of those platforms are obviously not Windows Phone 7, if the pair can rack up such numbers while going up against such competition as the stock Android browser and mobile Safari respectively, the lack of having Firefox as an option should not hurt Windows Phone 7 in any way.

source: WMExperts