Firefox the WebKit layout engine instead of Gecko, as with all other iOS web browsers. Firefox was created in 2002 under the codename "Phoenix" by the Mozilla community members who desired a standalone browser, rather than the Mozilla Application Suite bundle. During its beta phase, Firefox proved to be popular with its testers and was praised for its speed, security, and add-ons compared to Microsoft's then-dominant Internet Explorer 6. Firefox was released on November 9, 2004, and challenged Internet Explorer's dominance with 60 million downloads within nine months. Firefox is the spiritual successor of Netscape Navigator, as the Mozilla community was
Usage share of web browsers According to StatCounter, , Chrome is the most popular browser on phones (or phones plus tablets). For tablet only browsing, Safari on iPad has 58.8% share, followed by Chrome, which inherited its engine and web standard support; Safari is not available for Android. When counting across all platforms, Chrome is the most popular, and if only desktop platforms are counted, it has more than half of that market. No desktop browser has had a clear majority for a more than a decade, since Internet Explorer lost it, with Netscape once holding the lead before that. Other statistics/analysts show similar numbers.