Connect with us

Apple

Firefox iOS Browser Reportedly in the Works

Published

on

In an effort to reach more users, it’s said that Mozilla is looking to bring its Firefox web browser to iOS in the future.

According to TechCrunch, it’s said that Mozilla’s VP for Firefox, Jonathan Nightingale, wants to bring the popular desktop web browser to the iPhone and iPad. He says, “We need to be where our users are…So we’re going to get Firefox on iOS.”

While Google Chrome and Opera are available for iOS, Apple is very restrictive when it comes to third-party web browser engines running on its mobile operating system, and the only reason that Chrome and Opera are available on iOS is because they use Apple’s JavaScript and rendering engines, rather than their own.

This means that if Mozilla wants to bring Firefox to iOS, it’ll have to work closely with Apple in order to make that happen, and it’s possible that many features that make Firefox so wonderful may not come to iOS.

firefox_logo

The company is right when it says it needs to go where the users are. Firefox is currently available for Android devices, but there are also a ton of users with iOS devices where Firefox is nowhere to be found. Plus, bringing Firefox to iOS could even boost the usage on desktop, with features like bookmark syncing that could tempt users to start using the browser again on multiple devices.

Of course, Apple’s own Safari mobile browser is probably the best option when it comes to browsing on iOS, thanks to features like Private Browsing Mode, viewing desktop versions of websites, and of course the awesome Reader Mode that can turn crowded website articles into easy-to-read text.

Reading is one of the most popular activities to do on an iPad, especially with that Retina display. Text shows up sharp and crisp, almost like a real book. However, web browsing and reading articles on your mobile device can be a different story.

iOS 8 Features - Safari Tabs iPad

There’s some incredible content to be read on all sorts of websites, but advertisements can be distracting at times if you’re really wanting to dive into the content, yet they pay the bills, so they aren’t going away anytime soon. However, Safari has a neat little feature called Reader Mode, which can essentially take a web article and turn it into just a page with only the text and any photos and videos that accompany it, making it easy to read.

Google Chrome on iOS doesn’t have this feature, so it can only be found in Safari at the moment, and that’s one reason why using Safari on iOS is ideal. You also get better battery life by using Safari and it simply integrates into iOS and other services, making it great for iOS users.

However, if Firefox does come to iOS, it could threaten Safari in some fashion, but we’re guessing that Apple will make sure that doesn’t happen, as the company is known for keeping its own software protected at the expense of the functionality of third-party apps.

1 Comment

1 Comment

  1. Truffol (@Truffol)

    12/03/2014 at 6:54 pm

    how does FireFox make money??

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.