Mozilla wants to put Firefox on iOS

For more than a year, Firefox was not ready to release its iOS version because Apple wouldn’t let them use their own web engine but it seems that things are going to change now.

When it comes to the support for iOS, things don’t always easily seem to fall in place and Mozilla was no different in this case; since many years it has been repeatedly putting its foot down for an iOS version of its Firefox browser, wanting to use its own web engine and Apple only allows companies to use its in-house code in the name of security. However, it appears that Mozilla has recently been thinking about something else; the company’s VP Jonathan Nightingale has revealed that Mozilla wants to bring Firefox to 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

This announcement was careful not to reveal anything out of the ordinary and the VP didn’t mention anything related to how this is going to be done. But as it appears to be most likely, the company is probably going to make use of Apple’s engine and then a custom interface will be layered on top of that. This is going to be something similar to what Google does to its Chrome but we can only wait to see how this turns out to be.

Firefox for iOS!! Let’s do this!!! #mozlandia #awesome #mozilla #teamNightingale pic.twitter.com/d4JJQqNQFx— 真秀 Matthew Ruttley (@matt_ruttley) December 2, 2014

It is not so surprising that Mozilla has been making an about face about this, despite having trouble with its Firefox Home. As far as the Chrome is concerned, the real allure of that happens to be its sync support with other platforms. With the help of a port, you will be able to put all your Firefox bookmarks and passwords on your iOS gear so you no longer have to worry about switching between browsers just to stay in a familiar web environment.

Mozilla has officially acknowledged about the iOS platform:”  At Mozilla, we put our users first and want to provide an independent choice for them on any platform. We are in the early stages of experimenting with something that allows iOS users to be able to choose a Firefox-like experience. We work in the open at Mozilla and are just starting to experiment, so we’ll update you when we have more to share.”

Source: Mozilla