Mozilla Firefox 20 now available for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android

The latest version of the popular web browser, Mozilla Firefox 20, is now available for Windows, Mac, Linux, as also Android.

With the new version, users while browsing the web in Private mode can open a new private browsing window without closing or changing their current browsing session for private browsing, while the other windows remained unaffected and continued to record browsing history.

The feature is also available in the Android version of the browser allowing users to open a private tab. With the feature, users can also check multiple email accounts of one service provider simultaneously.

The new Firefox release also comes with a new download manager in the Firefox toolbar, which lets users monitor, view and locate downloaded files without having to switch to another window. The download manager is similar to that offered by the Safari web browser.

Additionally, Firefox for Android adds support for additional devices running on less powerful processor architecture, ARMv6 processors. The feature would allow phones like Samsung Galaxy Next, HTC Aria, HTC Legend, Samsung Dart, Samsung Galaxy Pop and the Samsung Galaxy Q to to run Firefox for Android.

According to Mozilla, this would allow the browser to  support 50 million more phones.

Meanwhile, according to a report in The Economic Times, even as Mozilla's new mobile operating system would challenge Apple's iOS and Google's Android as it was being positioned as vehicle to take the next 2 billion users online, in all likelihood, however, Mozilla would give India, home to 860 million mobile phone users - a miss in 2013.

Though the Mountain View, California-based maker of internet browser Firefox had tied up with 18 mobile phone operators globally, the list does not include any from India.

For starters, the country is targeting Brazil, Colombia, Hungary, Mexico, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Spain and Venezuela in July in the first phase.

"We are targeting the emerging markets for the first versions. We know that the biggest opportunity in mobile is in this segment and we want to offer a Firefox quality, entry-level smartphone experience in this part of the world," Mozilla said in an emailed statement in response to an ET questionnaire about the company's India plans. "However at this time we cannot confirm any specific timeline for when additional markets supporting Firefox OS will be announced."

According to analysts, Mozilla's go-slow policy on India, could be attributed to the peculiar nature of the local telecom market, where operators did not sell subsidised devices in substantial numbers, which to a great extent, was due to the predominance of prepaid customers who made up nearly 95 per cent of India's mobile subscriber base and were not bound by contracts.