What On Earth Is Mozilla’s Mystery iPhone App?

Mozilla’s CEO says an iPhone app is due within a few weeks, and that it’ll “surprise people.” I mean, that’s neat and all, but the most exciting possibility—Firefox—would be the least surprising. So, uh, what is it?

Om Malik’s got a little embryo of a theory, and it revolves around Mozilla’s hosted services/browser sync service called Weave:

I sat around gabbing with Lilly and Jay Sullivan, Mozilla’s VP of Mobile, talking about Weave and the Awesome Bar, which is a way to get access to all your browsing history and bookmarks by just typing them in the URL bar on your browser. And while we were talking about Weave, I asked them if it was going to be part of this new, mysterious iPhone app. Lilly and Sullivan smiled and remained silent. Interestingly, they didn’t correct me.

It’s a telling anecdote, and nearly enough to assume that Weave will be some part of the app, and if the alternative is a browser—which Apple probably wouldn’t be too excited to approve—then is may be the whole app. But goddamnit, let’s indulge our modest fantasies anyway! Lifehacker flags a (cautious) thesis by Kevin Tofel at JKOnTheRun, who sees a Fennec hiding behind the smoke:

Apple did begin to approve third-party applications earlier this year, so a Mozilla browser does have a chance for approval. And that could open the door for the Weave service, as well. Apple’s Mobile Me service doesn’t sync bookmarks or web passwords over-the-air currently, although I suspect these functions could be added in the future. In light of that, I’m thinking we’re about to see Fennec on the iPhone.

So in conclusion, Mozilla: ^This.^ [GigaOm and JKOnTheRun via Lifehacker]