Statcounterįigure 2: Firefox’s mobile usage is so small it is included in the “other” category. Statcounterįigure 1: Mozilla’s Firefox browser has declined steadily in desktop market share during the past decade.
In Figure 2, Firefox’s market share is so small it shows up in the “other” category. In fact, nothing Mozilla did seemed to work, as worldwide market share charts for desktop (Figure 1) and mobile (Figure 2) clearly detail. Mozilla’s do-gooder impulses later added more distraction with Context Graph, an attempt to reduce authorial intent on a webpage and replace it with Mozilla-generated links that the user might like more. Mozilla ensured that I and hundreds of millions of others wouldn’t have such a choice because it botched mobile early and often (four years too late to Android, refusal to build on iOS out of antipathy for WebKit, a bungled attempt to position Firefox as a web-oriented OS for low-end smartphones, etc.). For consumers like me, it’s essential to be able to use the same browser across different devices.
In its report, Mozilla says browser freedom has been “suppressed for years through online choice architecture and commercial practices that benefit platforms and are not in the best interest of consumers, developers, or the open web.” This would be more credible in Mozilla’s mouth if this weren’t the same company that completely mismanaged its entrance into the mobile market. DuckDuckGo has carved out a growing, sizeable niche in privacy-oriented search, but Mozilla keeps losing similar ground in browsers. Clearly there are smart people at Mozilla and they have demonstrated the ability to push the envelope on innovation. It didn’t succeed, though Mozilla has gifted us incredible innovations such as Rust. Meanwhile, as far back as 2008, I was writing about Mozilla’s chance to make Firefox a true community-developed web platform. Antitrust authorities helped change that, but Google, not Mozilla, stepped up to take Microsoft’s place, yet without the bully pulpit of a dominant operating system. Not so long ago, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer dominated market share. Whether on the desktop or mobile, Mozilla’s Firefox browser musters barely a rounding error of market share. Mozilla can’t necessarily be faulted for seeking ways to stand out.
0 kommentar(er)
