Mozilla Firefox is one of the popular browsers on desktop with a large fan following, but it is far behind in mobile devices. Mozilla released Firefox for Android and it is absent in iOS devices like iPhone and iPad. The reason for Firefox’s absence in the Apple walled garden is because of the Apple’s rules for third-party browsers. It is going to that way in the future also or at least Apple relaxes it’s rules governing third party browsers.
Mozilla’s VP of product Jay Sullivan says Apple continuous its unfriendly attitude towards third-party browsers, CNet reports. Speaking at SXSW browser panels he said Mozilla is not working on iOS version of the browser, nor they are planning for one.
Third-party browsers on iOS platform have to use Apple’s UIWebView component, but Apple’s own Safari browser uses the Nitro JavaScript rendering engine which is faster that the other, giving Safari a speed advantage. Mozilla is not ready to use UIWebView as it doesn’t serve its purpose, it wants to bring its own rendering engine, like the IonMonkey found in the desktop and Android versions of the browser.
It also faces the same issue in Windows RT, where Microsoft is not opening Win32 APIs to third-party browsers. Mozilla recently announced Firefox OS for smartphones and showed off devices running Firefox OS at MWC this year. It may gain some market share in the mobile market with its own OS but there is a long road ahead to get that point.
Source: CNet
