Firefox has never been a default browser on any OS, mobile or otherwise, and I don't see how that could ever change short of Firefox developing their own OS. Which is in fact something they tried a while back for mobile, and it didn't go so well.
A fork of it (KaiOS) is currently more popular than iOS in India.
I'd argue that their PWA-focused OS was just a few years ahead of its time.
The only gripe I have is that pre-installed software can not be easily uninstalled but I understand they need to eat there too so I'll give them a pass. Rearranging the icons took care of that particular irritation.
Sadly though, I don't know how relevant it is due to Linux's desktop marketshare.
Of course, being more or less forced into Gmail and Google docs (or office 365) means that that too is now a losing battle but I hope to fight this rearguard as long as I need to be commercially active. Frankly, I can't wait to shut down my email account and call it a day but it's still some years away.
Exactly, and they only did that when it was too late, and it was proven that mobile was going to be big. It'd have required betting on mobile before it was a sure thing, instead of just focusing on the browser they had.
I don't think Mozilla had any chance in this market. Microsoft couldn't do it, Blackberry couldn't do it, Palm couldn't do it, Nokia... probably could have done it if they hadn't been sabotaged by Steven Elop, but still. After the iPhone came out, everyone else failed except Google, who I'd posit just got lucky with a couple of well-timed carrier deals in key parts of the world.
The only thing Mozilla needed to do was have more foresight than all of the other guys with far more resources... sure, I guess. I don't think the target you're giving them is reasonable.
But they did that, and now Firefox market share is almost negligible because it wasn't the default browser on mobile OS's.
For example, I'm sceptical about the potential reach of XR, but if it grows big, it is vital that Firefox plays a bigger role there, instead of everybody being reliant on apps and Chrome once again.