Firefox For iPhone, iPad Finally Available
After years of exile, Firefox has been allowed into Apple's App Store. Better late than never is the sentiment that comes to mind, but Firefox for iOS isn't better than its desktop counterpart.
Firefox had been denied entry to the App Store because Mozilla remained committed to using its Gecko rendering engine, and Apple requires that iOS apps use the WebKit rendering engine. But Mozilla could not sustain its commitment in the face of Apple's unyielding market power. A shift toward mobile devices renders Firefox's desktop legacy less meaningful with each passing year. So, Firefox for iOS runs atop WebKit.
For most users of mobile browsers, this is inconsequential. Network conditions are so variable that the most noticeable mobile browser differences have to do with variations in interface and user experience rather than performance. But for Mozilla, the underlying technology matters, or it did.
(Image: Mozilla)
In 2013, then-CTO Brendan Eich explained why Mozilla had not followed Opera in adopting Webkit. "If we were a more conventional business, without enough desktop browser-market share, we would probably have to do what Opera has done," he wrote in a blog post. "But we're not just a business, and our desktop share seems to be holding or possibly rising -- due in part to the short-term wins we have been able to build on Gecko."
Gecko, as Eich saw it, offered Mozilla market advantages. It offered a competitive edge.
Two years later, it's a different story. Mozilla -- the organization that brought competition back to the desktop browser market, toppled the reign of Internet Explorer, and pushed Web technology forward for the benefit of everyone -- finds itself playing by the rules instead of challenging them.
For example, one of the most popular features in the desktop version of Firefox is its support for ad blocking extensions. Apple has endorsed ad blocking in mobile Safari through its support for Content Blocking extensions in iOS 9. Yet Firefox for iOS, as a third-party app, cannot implement ad blocking under Apple's rules.
"Apple Developer Guidelines do not allow us to incorporate their Content Blocking API into Private Browsing on Firefox for iOS," said Nick Nguyen, vice president of Firefox, in an email. "We would love to see this API open up in the future."