Firefox Coming to iOS Devices Soon

Lately, the folks over at Mozilla – the makers of the Firefox web browser – have been making a bit more noise than usual, having recently announced a partnership with Yahoo to replace Google as its default search engine. Today, Mozilla made headlines again, this time revealing that its longstanding decision not to develop Firefox for iOS devices has been reversed.

The news comes by way of a post on TechCrunch, which first pointed the way back to a Tweet from Firefox release manager Lukas Blakk:

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

— Lukas Blakk (@lsblakk) December 2, 2014

Soon after, Mozilla posted an official statement confirming that it is, indeed, working on bringing Firefox to Apple’s mobile devices:

“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.”

If and when Mozilla pulls this off, it’ll be a big win for them, as well as for Apple’s mobile customers. Having more choices for web browsing means that developers will continue to innovate to lure users back to their platforms. If iPhone and iPad users are able to move away from Safari for another browser – one that can sync with their desktop web browsing accounts – then that will push Apple to try and make Safari that much better to bring them back.

The phraseology of Mozilla’s statement is interesting, too. They’re “experimenting with something” to give users a “Firefox-like experience”? That’s awfully vague, isn’t it? What cold that mean when all is said and done? Hopefully we’ll find out for sure before too long.

[Sources: TechCrunch, Mozilla]