Apple's Browser Rules Stifle Innovation on iOS, Says UK Regulator

[jwdsail]

Apple's restrictions on mobile browsers are limiting innovation and holding back new features that could benefit iPhone users, according to provisional findings published today by the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

In its report, the CMA's independent inquiry group determined that Apple's Safari browser policies prevent competing browsers from implementing certain features, such as faster webpage loading technologies. The investigation also revealed that many UK app developers would prefer to offer progressive web apps as an alternative to App Store distribution, but Apple's current iOS limitations make this impractical.

Adding to competitive concerns, the regulator highlighted a revenue-sharing agreement between Apple and Google that "significantly reduces their financial incentives to compete" in the mobile browser space on iOS. The CMA also found that both companies can manipulate how users are presented with browser choices, making their own offerings appear as the clearest or easiest options.

"Through our investigation, we have provisionally found that competition between different mobile browsers is not working well and this is holding back innovation in the UK," said Margot Daly, chair of the CMA's independent inquiry group.

The investigation initially covered both mobile browsers and cloud gaming concerns, but the CMA has decided not to pursue action regarding cloud gaming, noting that Apple has already addressed the primary issue by beginning to allow cloud gaming apps on the App Store.

In its summary of provisional decision, the regulator is recommending that these findings be addressed through the UK's upcoming Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act, which takes effect in January 2025. This legislation will give the CMA new powers to designate firms as having "Strategic Market Status" and impose appropriate interventions to promote competition.

The CMA is accepting public comments on its provisional findings until December 13, with a final decision expected in March 2025. Similar investigations into mobile browser competition are currently being conducted by the European Commission and the United States Department of Justice.

Update: Apple provided MacRumors with the following statement:
Apple maintains that it fosters robust competition by offering a variety of WebKit-based third-party browsers on the App Store that compete alongside Safari, and that settings are included in iOS that allow users to easily switch their default browser.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: Apple's Browser Rules Stifle Innovation on iOS, Says UK Regulator

How much innovation is still on the table in the browser space that's been around since the early 1990s?

What are we missing that hasn't already been done by Mozilla, Microsoft, Google, Apple, etc, in the past 30 years?

And, with the push to apps for everything, including stuff that really should be a website, the browser space really isn't primed for a lot of advancement? Chrome is just a vector for ad distribution... Edge is getting that way as well.

Besides new and even more annoying ways to put ads in our faces when we're trying to read, research something important for school or work, or track severe weather, or just watch some freaking cat videos, what's there left to innovate in the browser space, exactly?

Two browser stories in one week where regulators are skating to where the puck was ten years ago.

SMH

 

[I7guy]

HAHAHAHAHAHA

Seriously?

You know that processor chip in your smartphone? The ARM processor? The Acorn RISC Machine processor? Guess where that came from.

Apple.

And perhaps you're familiar with the CAPTCHA? The Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart? Named for the guy who basically invented computer science?

Wait the EU had one significant invention?

I'm not British, and I don't like defending any country that can't be bothered to overthrow its monarchy, but your question is truly laughable.

Clearly isn’t.

 

[farmboy]

And the UK also developed the Arm ISA. So if it wasn’t for us, no A or M series SoCs.

in 1990 Apple, Acorn and VLSI Technologies jointly formed a new firm called Advanced RISC Machines Limited. Apple invested $3 million to own 43% of the company. That investment was specifically to fund the design and development of the ARM processor.

So without Apple, no ARM so to speak.

 

[Tago]

How much innovation is still on the table in the browser space that's been around since the early 1990s?

What are we missing that hasn't already been done by Mozilla, Microsoft, Google, Apple, etc, in the past 30 years?

And, with the push to apps for everything, including stuff that really should be a website, the browser space really isn't primed for a lot of advancement? Chrome is just a vector for ad distribution... Edge is getting that way as well.

Besides new and even more annoying ways to put ads in our faces when we're trying to read, research something important for school or work, or track severe weather, or just watch some freaking cat videos, what's there left to innovate in the browser space, exactly?

Two browser stories in one week where regulators are skating to where the puck was ten years ago.

SMH

There are a few doing a bit of work on the privacy and security side of things. I don`t use Bing/Safari/Chrrr... But of course the engine isn`t always made by the brand owning the Icon. Vivaldi is pretty adaptable to various user preferences like Opera was before PRC got it.

I use Firefox and Vivialdi and sometimes more obscure ones just for fun, and stay far away from Bing/Chrr/Opera and to a certain extent Safari.

 

[laptech]

Source please.

Nope, not falling for the trap. If you want my post removed then report it.

 

[surferfb]

Who'll get blamed when the iPhone's battery life tanks because a user set a chromium-based browser as the default? Not the browser developer, that's for sure.

And that isn't even taking into consideration the security implications of letting third-party browser engines run JITs willy nilly.

Everyone is always assuming Apple is acting nefariously to shut out competition, but in actuality they're looking out of their users and user experience. 99% of iPhone users are better served with WebKit browsers for a whole host of reasons. Just because you are a "power user" who knows what you're doing doesn't mean it's a good idea to turn that option on to everyone. And if it is that important of an issue for you, there is a perfectly fine mobile OS that would be happy to have you as a user.

 

[davide_eu]

Ok the new administration is going to stop all this nonsense. Regulators trying to justify their “job” is over. When the biggest market in the world starts to fight back then suddenly everyone plays nice again. Whether it’s right or wrong US Nationalism is back and the EU,UK bullying is done. “Hey Spotify your big brother is about to get punched in the mouth”

The new administration? What do you mean? the new clown with his friend?

 

[davide_eu]

No wonder why Gurman said Apple is probably relieved Trump won. This overseas bullying must end.

haha... overseas = EU, UK, everybody else will improve the freedom of their market...

 

[davide_eu]

A classic example of innovation being stifled by Apple due to restrictions/limitations/obstacles put in their way is if memory serves me right is a weather app, given rave reviews by MR members for being so much better than Apple's own version and what happened? Apple buys the company that created the app to stop it competing with theirs.

This is how Apple does things when it comes to innovation, it stops others from doing it.

You are right, the only way a$$le is able to fight competion is trying to shutdown them...

 

[Seoras]

The UK spies have long moaned about the security of iPhone and encryption in general.
All this "openness" BS is really just them looking for more vectors into your device.

That's the reason Apple forced all browsers on iOS to use Webkit. Security.
If you have multiple browsers you have multiple Javascript interpreters.
With all browsers forced onto one, Webkit, they have a better chance of limiting vulnerability.
Webkit isn't perfect but if you fix a hole in it you fix it in all browsers on iOS. At the moment...

 

[surfzen21]

Let the UK keep this nonsense up and I'm going to throw some tea in the harbour and get this party started. 🇺🇸

 

[john123]

It was pretty much obvious to anyone except the sold-out pollsters and left-leaning pundits that he will win. I knew that half of the Silicon Valley investors actually endorsed him. Gurman again tells the obvious🤣

I bet Tim is gonna be happy like a child who receives Christmas present when Don will finally visit the Infinite Loop next year

It really wasn't, and that's true whether you're a hard R or a hard D. Using all available data, reasonable probability estimates put him as a slight favorite with somewhere around 62% win probability being an upper bound.

Ok the new administration is going to stop all this nonsense. Regulators trying to justify their “job” is over. When the biggest market in the world starts to fight back then suddenly everyone plays nice again. Whether it’s right or wrong US Nationalism is back and the EU,UK bullying is done. “Hey Spotify your big brother is about to get punched in the mouth”

Please tell me more about how the US administration will upend legal rulings in the EU and UK and invalidate how companies do business in those jurisdictions. I wasn't aware of this and am very eager to learn more.

 

[Bregalad]

I can see there are many members who do not want see innovation due to them complaining about the UK regulator. I look at the raspberry PI and the thousands upon thousands of designers, engineers, programmers, inventors creating things for the PI because the company behind the raspberry PI wants that kind of thing to happen. There is none of this 'we cannot do this for the PI because the company has restricted x,y and z. Apple is completely different. There are thousands of app developers, web developers, browser developers who say they can do this for this and can do that for the iphone but they can't because Apple put restrictions in place preventing innovation to take place.

Remember the iphone jailbreaking community? innovation being taken to it's fullest as to what can be done with iOS with many MR members in awe at what can be achieved and them saying 'I wish that feature was available on the iphone, I wish that function was available on the iphone, I wish that app was available on the iphone', but they are not because Apple put's restrictions in place on what can be done with iOS.

Apple only wants innovation if it is them doing the innovation. When others want to do it, Apple put's restrictions in place. THIS is why the UK and EU constantly goes after Apple.

I don't understand why any government body cares about a multinational corporation failing to allow innovation on the products they invented.

Nobody is being forced to use an OS that stifles innovation.
Nobody is being forced to write apps for an OS that stifles innovation.

You want default app choice? You want side loading? You want to install a low level firewall on your phone?
Buy a phone that runs the world's #1 operating system, Android, and stop complaining that some other company doesn't offer those same features.

I don't go whining to my government because Walmart doesn't carry my favourite brand of breakfast cereal. I shop at another store that DOES carry it.

If those features were actually essential then Apple wouldn't be able to sell a single phone and they'd go bankrupt.

But apparently millions of people actually like being in a walled garden and don't want the walls torn down because somebody in Berlin or London thinks walls are bad.

I don't want iOS turned into a crappy copy of Android. The EU (and others) need to get their heads out of their asses.

 

[john123]

I don't understand why any government body cares about a multinational corporation failing to allow innovation on the products they invented.

Nobody is being forced to use an OS that stifles innovation.
Nobody is being forced to write apps for an OS that stifles innovation.

You want default app choice? You want side loading? You want to install a low level firewall on your phone?
Buy a phone that runs the world's #1 operating system, Android, and stop complaining that some other company doesn't offer those same features.

I don't go whining to my government because Walmart doesn't carry my favourite brand of breakfast cereal. I shop at another store that DOES carry it.

If those features were actually essential then Apple wouldn't be able to sell a single phone and they'd go bankrupt.

But apparently millions of people actually like being in a walled garden and don't want the walls torn down because somebody in Berlin or London thinks walls are bad.

I don't want iOS turned into a crappy copy of Android. The EU (and others) need to get their heads out of their asses.

You start off saying you don't understand (true) but then say they need to the EU to get their heads out of their behinds. Understanding the first part would lead you not to say the last part.

If you couldn't get breakfast cereals from any place other than Walmart and Target, and there weren't synthetic substitutes for breakfast cereal, then yeah, the government would probably get involved there too.

An internet forum isn't the place to teach economics. But whether you like these particular decisions or not, there is economic reasoning behind them.

 

[nostradumbass]

Better start educating the workforce then. And get rid of poverty and miserable schools.

They will never do that. It's all intended. Doesn't matter which party you vote for in UK, EU or US. They are all capitalists who cosplay as conservatives or socialists or whatever in the middle. You cannot represent any political party unless you have been groomed and vetted by financial interests.

Those financial interests want people to be idiotic, lazy consumers who watch drug addicted influencers, get food delivered by slaves, brain dead in front of Netflix UFO specials, gambling on magic coins and scam stocks, fighting each other on X and that Bluebird whatever new garbage app.

Look at the world education league tables. All the top scores and highest IQ results are for East Asia. If it wasn't for East Asian students many western universities would be broke. If western politicians were serious about making a better future they would make education more accessible and affordable for their own young people instead of depending on East Asian students.

But they won't. They want foreign student's money, even when some of it is coming from crime gangs, and the landlords in western countries want more tenants from abroad to push up the rents. The future only belongs to the bastard children of the rich who will inherit a huge windfall for doing absolutely no work.

 

[Bregalad]

You start off saying you don't understand (true) but then say they need to the EU to get their heads out of their behinds. Understanding the first part would lead you not to say the last part.

If you couldn't get breakfast cereals from any place other than Walmart and Target, and there weren't synthetic substitutes for breakfast cereal, then yeah, the government would probably get involved there too.

An internet forum isn't the place to teach economics. But whether you like these particular decisions or not, there is economic reasoning behind them.

OK let's say the EU is successful in legislating the walled garden out of existence.

Does Europe really win by weakening Apple and making iOS little more than a really expensive copy of Android?

Taking Apple's uniqueness away, making the mobile phone market more homogeneous will be to the advantage of those with the lowest production costs and greatest government subsidies. Say hello to a market dominated by Chinese brands.

I don't see a significant advantage for Europe in that case, but I will bow to your superior knowledge of economics.

 

[2540497]

Being a cash-rich mega-corporation isn’t easy when governments like ours can use lawfare to refill depleted and mismanaged public coffers with arbitrary fines.

Our apologies from the UK.

 

[Tago]

OK let's say the EU is successful in legislating the walled garden out of existence.

Does Europe really win by weakening Apple and making iOS little more than a really expensive copy of Android?

Taking Apple's uniqueness away, making the mobile phone market more homogeneous will be to the advantage of those with the lowest production costs and greatest government subsidies. Say hello to a market dominated by Chinese brands.

I don't see a significant advantage for Europe in that case, but I will bow to your superior knowledge of economics.

EU is a rather similar construction to the US of A. The intention is to build a strong competitive unit, and a lot of work is put into get as many laws and regulations to be common for the entire area, which makes it easier to compete within the area and easier for competing areas to offer their services/products in the area. Consumer laws is a part of this, and will benefit populations where those laws are weak, at the expense of populations where laws are stronger.

It is also an ambition to align tax laws and levels, which will make it easier to move products within the area and in to the area.

USA has obviously failed to achieve common laws and taxes between the independent states who are underbidding each other with tax exemptions, and UK have decided to pursue an independent future. And now the population face the very same problems the US have. Public sector, health and what not is in shambles, poverty is more widespread than ever, and opoids are on the rise. UK cannot support their own population. ONE of the reasons is that they made London a tax haven - made all look good, didn`t it?

The scots will eventually have had enough, but they have tied themselves to the mast as peasants. UK will loose NI as soon as the Irish have gained a majority by giving birth to way more children than the English. UK have to walk the "colonial path" but they effectively lost that many decades ago to the US, and now there are a lot of hands in that pie, like PRC. There is no indication of UK being capable of supporting their population in the foreseeable future, and there`s no glory ahead. You`re right, money is in desperate need, but many will remember how that (tax regime) went in the 60ies and 70ies, and how bad it went when that regime was countered by the absolute opposite.

No way out.

 

[page3]

I'm not British, and I don't like defending any country that can't be bothered to overthrow its monarchy, but your question is truly laughable.

To be fair, at one point we did literally chop his head off.

 

[MilaM]

Strawman. The US isn’t telling mobile phone manufacturers what connector to use. The US isnt telling mobile phone manufacturers their nfc chip must be open. The US isn’t imposing idiotic regulations based on revenue etc etc.

Maybe. US regulation can be much more brutal when it comes though. Look at the proposals being discussed in the Google trial. I don't know what consequences Apple might face, should a court decide they broke antitrust law. But I'm guessing the outcome could be quite surprising and far-reaching.

 

[MilaM]

Colossus, Acorn, RiscOS, BASIC, ARM and the WWW pass you by?

A few more here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_British_innovations_and_discoveries

I would like to add Raspberry Pi to the list. They are even assembled in the UK, as far as I know. It's maybe not as cutting-edge as the iPhone, but still loved around the world for its openness and hackability.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

And, if innovation is being stifled in a way that drives customers away, those companies will purchase devices that DON’T stifle innovation. The problem resolves itself with no effort required by the government. In this case, Apple = Gone.

However, if the company’s product continues to thrive, then it literally isn’t stifling innovation to any material extent. Or if there IS innovation that’s being stifled, it’s the kind innovation that brings no real world benefit to the customers.

 

[tomtad]

Really? Provide one instance where the UK did any innovation in the smartphone environment. Or any computer environment.

Crumbs, there's uninformed and then there's this.

For starters I'll go with the very architecture that Apple uses in all of it's chips.

 

[I7guy]

Maybe. US regulation can be much more brutal when it comes though. Look at the proposals being discussed in the Google trial. I don't know what consequences Apple might face, should a court decide they broke antitrust law. But I'm guessing the outcome could be quite surprising and far-reaching.

If the AT&T breakup in the 80s has taught us anything, long term and far reaching are not nirvana.

 

[MilaM]

If the AT&T breakup in the 80s has taught us anything, long term and far reaching are not nirvana.

Exactly my point. Instead of mandating much more drastic measures, like breaking up Apple or Google, maybe it's more reasonable to look at the problem and craft legislation that facilitates competition on the platforms. Time will tell which approach will result in the best outcome 🤷‍♂️.