Firefox for Android: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 18:38, 16 April 2024

Revision as of 20:40, 18 April 2024

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== Reception ==

{{Update|type=section|date=August 2020|reason=}}[[File:Usage share of minor mobile browsers since 2013.svg|320px|thumb|right|Usage share of lesser-used mobile browsers since 2013. Firefox usage share grew through March and April 2014.]]

The main criticisms<ref>{{byCite web whom|datetitle=September 2015|url=https://fileforum.com/detail/Mozilla-Firefox-for-Windows/1032985422/1}}</ref> of the browser pre-version 14 were slow browsing speed, lack of plugin support and performance issues.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tomsguide.com/us/Android-Web-Browsers,review-1705.html |title=Best Android Browser - Android Gingerbread Browser - Tom's Guide |author=Paul Escallier |work=Tom's Guide|date=4 November 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2383721,00.asp |work=PC Magazine |first=Sara |last=Yin |title=The Best Android Browsers |date=2012-04-06}}</ref> To address these concerns, Mozilla redesigned the browser in version 14.0, adding [[Adobe Flash Player|Flash]] support, improving start-up speed, as well as other enhancements.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://wiki.mozilla.org/Fennec/NativeUI |title=Fennec/NativeUI |work=mozilla.org}}</ref> This update dramatically improved Firefox for Android. {{As of|September 2014}}, the average user rating of Firefox for Android on the [[Google Play|Google Play Store]] is 4.4.<ref>{{cite web |title=Firefox |author=[[Mozilla Corporation]] |work=[[Google Play]] |date=December 27, 2013 |url=https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mozilla.firefox |access-date=December 27, 2013}}</ref>

Compared to the stock Android browser and Chrome on Android, Firefox has a small market share; for the month of November 2015, Firefox for Android usage share of all mobile/tablet browsers was just 0.81%.<ref>{{cite web |title=Browser market share |work=netmarketshare.com |date=November 2015 |url= http://www.netmarketshare.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=0&qpcustomd=1&qptimeframe=M&qpsp=202 |access-date=2015-12-03}}<!--For the latest data, see URL at Talk.--></ref> Despite that, Firefox for Android enjoys a high Play Store rating, has over 100 million downloads,<ref>{{cite web |title=Firefox Browser for Android |author=Mozilla |work=Google Play |year=2015 |url=https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mozilla.firefox }}</ref><ref name="Softonic_Benedetti"/> and continues to be developed. The latest version supports Android 4.0 and higher (as Android 2.3 support was dropped in version 48).<ref name="Softpedia_2015">{{cite news |title=No More Security Patches for Chrome 43 on Android ICS |publisher=Softpedia |date=2015-03-05 |url=http://news.softpedia.com/news/No-More-Security-Patches-for-Chrome-43-on-Android-ICS-474959.shtml |access-date=2015-03-28}}</ref>