Mozilla’s changed its mind, confirms work on Firefox for iPhone and iPad

By Malarie Gokey December 3, 2014

mozilla firefox coming ios devices — Image via Flickr/Mozilla Image used with permission by copyright holder

In the past, Mozilla has refused to bring its Firefox Web browser to iOS devices, but now it looks as though it’s about to change its position. Executives reportedly discussed the importance of bringing Firefox to iOS during an internal meeting in Portland, Oregon.

Mozilla’s vice president for Firefox Jonathan Nightingale told fellow executives it’s time for Mozilla to focus on bringing Firefox to iOS no matter what. TechCrunch picked up the following quote from Nightingale, which was posted on Twitter by Firefox release manager Lukas Blakk.

“We need to be where our users are,” Blakk wrote. “So we’re going to get Firefox on iOS.”

We need to be where our users are so we’re going to get Firefox on iOS #mozlandia

— Lukas Blakk (@lsblakk) December 2, 2014

Previously, Mozilla refused to bring Firefox to iOS because Apple doesn’t allow Mozilla to use its own Web engine on iOS. Apple only permits third-party Web browsers like Chrome and Opera on its mobile operating system because both use Apple’s rendering engines and Javascript. If Mozilla wants to get Firefox on iOS, it will probably have to follow similar procedures. Luckily, Firefox should still be able to support bookmark syncing and most of the other features it offers on Android, even with Apple’s limitations. At this point, it’s still unclear when Firefox will arrive on iOS.

Mobile is a very important frontier for all Web browsers to conquer, and Firefox is lagging behind. Most users expect to be able to access all their bookmarks, contacts, passwords, and more in their Web browser of choice, regardless of what kind of device they are using. Firefox has been declining in popularity recently, but this could help it spring back.

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