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Apple's anti-competitive behavior with browsers: Why does Apple get a pass?

Is it ok for Apple to not allow other default browsers and gimp their Webkit usage?

  • Yes

    Votes: 128 38.7%

  • No

    Votes: 203 61.3%
  • Total voters
    331
JS82712 said:
And you know what else is bs? The fact that you are trolling a Mac forum with your android **** that no one gives a flying ******* about.
If apple users have a problem with this whole browser "issue", they will move to another platform; you on the other hand, shouldn't be talking, because you are just a rude teenager with nothing better to do other than bashing a company run by people that are and will always be more successful than a troll like you.
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If you haven't noticed, many people are moving to Android because of things like this, even in this forum, as you can see from the poll and other threads like mine.

There is no need to be upset with me. Perhaps you should focus on Apple's activities with a more objective approach.
 
I believe that we should be able to set an app to be the "favorite" ou default.

Not only for browser, but other apps like, music, mail, photo, etc and a simple option in the settings app would do the trick.
 
Calidude said:
If you haven't noticed, many people are moving to Android because of things like this, even in this forum, as you can see from the poll and other threads like mine.

There is no need to be upset with me. Perhaps you should focus on Apple's activities with a more objective approach.
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It seems to me like you ARE trolling. Ive seen some of your posts..
Looks like your trying to justify your purchase by barking at people on how much better android is and blal blah blah. Everyone has an opinion and thats fine, but when your so obvious its just plain dumb...
 
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Calidude said:
Apple's anti-competitive behavior with browsers: Why does Apple get a pass?
Click to expand...
I don't think that's a fair assumption to make. You state "anti-competitive behavior" as if it's a fact. What evidence do you have to make that assertion?

Unlike Microsoft, who provided software to many OEMs, Apple provides a complete system (Hardware+Software). When you buy an iPhone, you're buying a physical product. Not an OS.

Sure, that product happens to need an OS to run. No different than buying a Sony DVD player or an XBox 360.

Apple isn't obligated to open up their hardware product, which they cover with 90 days of phone support, to 3rd party developers. But it made good business sense to do it - so they did - on their own terms. I don't think it's any more complicated than that.

I feel 3rd party vendors and developers have no "right" to develop apps for Apple's hardware product. Developers are free to build their own physical product if they want to, of course. Some have - The iPhone itself has plenty of competition. Yet it still seems to be prefered by many consumers, and Apple is still taking that to the bank, every day.

To answer your question, Apple doesn't need a pass. It's their hardware.
 
Calidude said:
If you haven't noticed, many people are moving to Android because of things like this
Click to expand...

People move accross platforms all time. I moved from Android to iOS because i din't like it a bit and it was to unstable for my taste. Other users move from iOS to Android for widgets and stuf. We all have different taste.

And judging from your comment, sounds trolling to me too.
 
Calidude said:
Apple wouldn't be citing "security reasons" as an excuse to not allow Google or any other company to showcase a faster browsing engine and trump Apple on their own OS, making Apple much look less innovative than they actually are, would they? :eek:
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Safari has consistently been the fastest mobile browser for years now.

And look at the front page of the site to see what companies like Google manage when they're given lower-level access to the hardware.

I certainly think that they should allow you to change the default apps though, and if possible, enable some way for web browsers to put their own UI over a version of WebKit with the Nitro JS engine so that other browsers can at least be competitive with Safari on speed.

I don't believe that this is intentionally being done to give Apple an unfair advantage—if they wanted to, they could simply not allow other web browsers to exist on the platform at all. There are genuine security reasons for doing this.

TheSuperSteve said:
I really don't care about anything you guys are bickering about. All I know is that I payed hard earned cash for my iPhone and iPad and I should be able to do what I want with it. I shouldn't have to jailbreak to do things like changing the default browser.
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Jailbreaking is the "doing what I want with hardware I own" option though. If you want to live in Apple's ecosystem, you have to play by their rules.
 
It's not OK, but I can understand why they do it. Some less tech savvy person may inadvertently set their default browser to something they may not like, or something full of security holes, and not know how to get it back.
 
lunarworks said:
It's not OK, but I can understand why they do it. Some less tech savvy person may inadvertently set their default browser to something they may not like, or something full of security holes, and not know how to get it back.
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A somewhat fair point, but this is not much harder than going into Notification or Location settings and finetuning how that should work for you.

I mean, do we really need to dumb computing devices down to the point where we end up with almost no choices with what to do with our devices?
 
Calidude said:
I don't use Chrome myself, but today was a big deal for a lot of people and I'm surprised that Apple isn't being heavily criticized for their anti-competitive behavior when it comes to browsers.

It's ridiculous enough that other browsers can't be set as default, but to actually gimp them by not allowing them to harness the full Webkit abilities of Safari is just blatantly destructive to end users and developers alike.

I'm seeing people say "you need to jailbreak" yet this board is overwhelmingly anti-jailbreak . Is this something we should have to jailbreak? Not at all. Apple has a mobile OS that doesn't even act like an OS should, and people don't seem to have much of a problem with it.

Why is that?
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If you are genuinely concerned that Apple is engaged in illegal activity, why don't you file a complaint? http://www.justice.gov/atr/contact/newcase.html
 
Calidude said:
I mean, do we really need to dumb computing devices down to the point where we end up with almost no choices with what to do with our devices?
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You say dumb down, I say simplify or standardize. You say eliminating choice, I say adding a choice.
 
Renzatic said:
Once again, I'm all for simplification. But not being able to choose what works best for me isn't exactly an additional choice.
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I agree that if you offer 3rd party browsers then why not let the user switch the default? This is where jail breaking comes in
 
Calidude said:
A somewhat fair point, but this is not much harder than going into Notification or Location settings and finetuning how that should work for you.

I mean, do we really need to dumb computing devices down to the point where we end up with almost no choices with what to do with our devices?
Click to expand...

Maybe you should get over the fact that not everyone likes android?

Again, If people have a problem with ios, they will let apple know by jumping to other platforms.

All this b!tching about apple yet you have no problem with google not fixing their android lag until its 4.1 release. Hilarious.
 
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I tested out chrome yesterday and it made me realize how outdated safari is. Even with iOS 6's full screen browsing. The only reason why I wont ditch safari is because I have all my history and bookmarks there, and honestly I just like the way it scrolls better. Chrome had a bit of that android scroll to it. Dont like it, doesnt feel natural.
 
aristobrat said:
Wasn't the whole Windows/IE thing over the fact that Microsoft had dominance over the personal computer OS market?

Apple doesn't have dominance over the smartphone OS market. Depending on which analyst report you read on a specific day, they may be slightly ahead of Android, but that's not dominance.
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True.

----------
dotme said:
I feel 3rd party vendors and developers have no "right" to develop apps for Apple's hardware product.
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well that's a sour attitude
 
WordMasterRice said:
While I'm sure there are examples that prove your point, this isn't one of them. That's an Apple Fail, not a Google one. Under no circumstance should an app grabbing the graphics module be able to crash the kernel lol.
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I agree, there should be no possible way for an application to crash the kernel in this way.

But Google seems to be the only one that has managed it so far...
 
Try seeing it from a different angle. Consider, they created a mobile OS, with a fantastic browser that is on the cutting edge, and left it at that.

Creating controls to allow other browsers is more work, developer time, debug time, all resources they would have to dedicate time to polishing. Resources dedicated to helping their competitors.

Where is the business sense? They would be acting as an irresponsible corporation, a public corporation that answers to investors. They open themselves to litigation without the court order or obvious and severe damage to their market share...

Don't even think for a second that the polls here on a tech centric message board mean jack. This discussion board is the .01%. The 100 million tween girls, soccer moms, sales, marketing, political science, liberal arts people who aren't techies don't give a rats ass about Safari vs. Chrome vs. Firefox.
 
Renzatic said:
Once again, I'm all for simplification. But not being able to choose what works best for me isn't exactly an additional choice.
Click to expand...

You can choose what works best for you. From all the available options. You want to choose from things that aren't available. iOS and the Apple way of doing things is an additional choice.

I understand that you don't agree with this way of looking at the situation. I'm just presenting another point of view.
 
Menel said:
Try seeing it from a different angle. Consider, they created a mobile OS, with a fantastic browser that is on the cutting edge, and left it at that.

Creating controls to allow other browsers is more work, developer time, debug time, all resources they would have to dedicate time to polishing. Resources dedicated to helping their competitors.

Where is the business sense? They would be acting as an irresponsible corporation, a public corporation that answers to investors. They open themselves to litigation without the court order or obvious and severe damage to their market share...

Don't even think for a second that the polls here on a tech centric message board mean jack. This discussion board is the .01%. The 100 million tween girls, soccer moms, sales, marketing, political science, liberal arts people who aren't techies don't give a rats ass about Safari vs. Chrome vs. Firefox.
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You mean the less than 4 hours from launch when there was a simple jailbreak solution from someone who doesn't even have core access?
 
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Apple needs to do some major work on safari. Here's the stock android browser on the jellybean preview that is final next month. It destroys safari. The ICS browser and gingerbread browser already were faster. This is on the nexus too. I can only imagine how fast it is on the tegra 3 and snapdragon s4.
 
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BaldiMac said:
You can choose what works best for you. From all the available options. You want to choose from things that aren't available. iOS and the Apple way of doing things is an additional choice.

I understand that you don't agree with this way of looking at the situation. I'm just presenting another point of view.
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It's mixed for me, because I like Apple hardware, but don't like their draconian (and arguably unnecessary) restrictions they put on third parties. There's no reason why Apple shouldn't allow another true browser into their ecosystem. You could argue it's a potential security risk, but people who feel the need to experiment with browsers other than the default tend to know how to handle themselves when it comes to security issues.

And the security risks? Likely negligible. In my opinion Chrome on iOS should have the same access to the hardware as Safari. Or if not that, then at least access to the same internal software. There's absolutely no good excuse to do otherwise.
 
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