Mozilla Firefox For iOS Now Available For Download; Did Apple Prohibit The App In 2013?
Mozilla Firefox For iOS Is Now Available To Download!; Apple Prohibited Firefox App In 2013?
Mozilla announced on Nov.11 that Firefox is now available for iOS devices.
Mozilla first made a public announcement about its availability for the iOS platform in 2014 and shared a beta version of it in September 2015. The browser had been available for Android devices for many years but things has changed now since it will be available for Apple devices. The private browsing feature and syncing through devices as well as the intelligent search will be included with the browser's functionality, according to The Verge.
Although there are a lot of available browsers for iOS, Mozilla's main purpose is to reach their loyal users so that they can utilize their saved bookmarks, passwords, tabs and browsing history from the web to their mobile, reported in TechCrunch.
Firefox browser testing process took place in New Zealand where it was first launched. The reason for choosing the location is because of its small population where English is their primary language. Mozilla refused to develop an iOS version of the browser because Apple didn't allow Firefox to use their rendering engine, Gecko in 2013, according to TechTimes.
Firefox browser has a 100 million downloads for the past four years for its Android version that made the Mozilla executives decide to jump into their competitor's platform.
"The browser was quick to load and rendered web pages without issue, but you probably won't notice much of difference between Firefox, Safari or Chrome," according Matt Brian's test reported in Engadget.
Mozilla Firefox was a popular desktop browser before Google introduced Chrome in 2008, which is the most used browser as of recent reports. Mozilla now sits on the fourth place following Chrome, Internet Explorer and Safari, according to MacRumors.
Firefox will be available to download for Apple devices with iOS version 8.2 up to the latest.
