Popular Software Maker Boycotts Apple Because Of Crazy Restrictions

The popular Firefox browser will not be available for Apple's iPhone and iPad, Jay Sullivan, Mozilla’s VP of Product, said during a talk at the SXSW conference in Austin Texas.

Sullivan said that Mozilla is not working on Firefox for iOS devices now and it won't do so in the future unless Apple changes its restrictive ways, reports Cnet's Jennifer Van Grove.

Mozilla pulled its browser from the App Store back in September, 2012, because Apple would not allow Mozilla to use its own sophisticated rendering and javascript engine in Firefox for iOS. Without that, Mozilla felt that it couldn't offer iOS users a good enough browsing experience.

Apple makes it difficult for third-party iOS browsers in other ways, too, like not giving users an option to change the default browser to something other than Safari.

So far, there's been no user outcry against Apple about browser choice on smartphones and tablets. But it could prove risky for Apple in the long run, if Apple's market share in mobile grows.

Microsoft was just fined $733 million by the European Union Commission for failing to meet its promise to give Windows users a choice of which browser to install, instead of having Internet Explorer installed by default.