Mozilla: Forget Firefox for iOS
By Todd Haselton | +
Mozilla launched Firefox Home for iOS back in July 2010, but it wasn’t a full featured browser experience that Mozilla was particularly proud of, especially because it was limited to only providing access to Firefox desktop history, bookmarks and open tabs. Mozilla recently commented on that release, which was yanked in September, and said that because Apple is so limiting on its app store controls it won’t launch a full fledged browser for the platform.
Still, somehow Google has managed to keep a relatively decent experience on its Chrome for iOS browser, so we’re not entirely sure why Mozilla is limited where Google is not. To clarify a bit, Mozilla’s vice president of product Jay Sullivan told CNET that it’s about an inability to add the JavaScript and rendering enhancements that it wants to provide. Meanwhile,.Firefox offers a full browser on Android because Google allows the company much more control over the experience, but it faces steep competition from Chrome and Dolphin among other third-party browsers.
Perhaps the real story is that Mozilla doesn’t think it can compete effectively enough against Safari and Chrome on iOS. Still, it’s not the first company to complain about Apple’s limiting approval policy.
