Mozilla Says No Firefox Coming To iOS Until Apple Loosens Restrictions
Well, here's an interesting one. While Apple's iOS platform is generally first (or second, at worst) to receive the latest and greatest apps, one major one isn't coming back. Jay Sullivan, Mozilla’s VP of Product, has just thrown a spike in the direction of the iPhone by confirming that it won't build an iOS version of Firefox. The reason? It's upset about Apple's "unfriendly ways towards third-party browsers." Curiously, this comes just a week after Mobile World Congress, where Firefox OS had its major coming-out party as a viable alternative to iOS, Android, etc.
The news was delivered at the SXSWi conference in Texas this week, with Sullivan noting that Mozilla is "neither building nor planning to build a Firefox version for Apple’s iOS." Loyalists may recall that Firefox briefly hit the App Store in September 2012, but it was yanked soon after and has yet to reappear. Of course, now that Firefox OS is a reality, Mozilla likely has bigger fish to fry. You may recall that Chrome faced a similar situation; essentially, Apple forces all third-party browsers to use a rendering engine unlike the one in Safari, so pretty much every third-party browser has subpar performance when compared to Safari.
While the decision may shock some, it's probably going to become more familiar. There are already a plethora of third-party browsing options for iPhone, and Safari itself is quite stout -- Mozilla is probably just prioritizing its resources, and that sure sounds wise to us.
The news was delivered at the SXSWi conference in Texas this week, with Sullivan noting that Mozilla is "neither building nor planning to build a Firefox version for Apple’s iOS." Loyalists may recall that Firefox briefly hit the App Store in September 2012, but it was yanked soon after and has yet to reappear. Of course, now that Firefox OS is a reality, Mozilla likely has bigger fish to fry. You may recall that Chrome faced a similar situation; essentially, Apple forces all third-party browsers to use a rendering engine unlike the one in Safari, so pretty much every third-party browser has subpar performance when compared to Safari.
While the decision may shock some, it's probably going to become more familiar. There are already a plethora of third-party browsing options for iPhone, and Safari itself is quite stout -- Mozilla is probably just prioritizing its resources, and that sure sounds wise to us.
