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Should Apple Continue to Ban Rival Browser Engines on iOS?

Brian.m85 said:
"Do we really want to live in a 95% Chromium browser world?"

Maybe without the browser restriction Apple would be forced to compete. They lost so much market share because they are not competitive. Not because of some anti-competiveness from anyone.
Click to expand...

This was kind of telling:

It's made much worse by the incredibly slow pace of Safari releases. Here are the browser release cycles today:
  • Chrome: every 6 weeks, planning to move to every 4 weeks in Q3 2021
  • Edge: every 6 weeks, planning to move to every 4 weeks in Q3 2021, with an 8-week stable enterprise option
  • Vivaldi: every 6 weeks
  • Firefox: every 4 weeks
  • Brave: every 3 weeks
  • Safari: every 6 months
Spot the odd one out.
 
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I understand the argument as to why they should, but I also understand and agree with their current rules. There’s a fine line between anticompetitive behavior and trying to build a consistent platform that pushes your own success.
 
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dk001 said:
Problem with this is as Safari lags behind implementing even the standards, this slows down advancement across all browsers as Apple always seems to be late to the table.

Apple's Safari support/development is an anchor at this time.
Like ball and chain type.
Click to expand...

The good news, for you, is that there are other phones out there that support the browsers you believe are better.

Simply choose one and find happiness.
 
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The original iPhone OS actually used WebKit for rendering text in apps. That made WebKit a foundation technology of the phone. It wasn’t until iOS 6 or 7 that they were able to bring over TextKit from macOS.

The main issue is privacy and security. Code which interprets code is opening a big can of worms.

And then of course, there is Apple wanting to control the user experience of iPhone.
 
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now i see it said:
Older iPhones running newer versions of iOS always is a painful experience.
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It’s not that simple, I think.

For example I remember very well how the iPhone 6 I had became quite slow when I went from iOS 10 to iOS 11. Then when iOS 12 came out it got back to iOS 10 speeds again. ?‍♂️
 
GermanSuplex said:
I understand the argument as to why they should, but I also understand and agree with their current rules. There’s a fine line between anticompetitive behavior and trying to build a consistent platform that pushes your own success.
Click to expand...

I agree however have to wonder at the lack of standards implementation and lack of a quicker update cycle.
 
Of course Apple should allow any other internet browser on their most popular OS platform. Microsoft got hammered in the US and EU for doing far less at the turn of the century. If Apple even has a shred of decency left they will open up their ridiculous walled garden before they are forced to by the anti trust commities worldwide. Unless they want to be painted as evil in everyone's eyes, save for Apple fanboy die hards. How is this even a question?
 
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Yes. Apple should continue to ban rival browser engines. I think having two distinctly different approaches to consumer gadgets is a healthy thing.

At one time I was a fan of the locked down wall garden that is Appleland. But these days I need to spend my time getting things done in the ways that feel natural for me rather then spending that time working around and through limitations.

So although I still own and use devices from various manufacturers, these days I primarily use Android and Windows-based devices, I understand that my needs and tastes might change back and I'd like to have the option for a locked down experience.
 
dk001 said:
This was kind of telling:

It's made much worse by the incredibly slow pace of Safari releases. Here are the browser release cycles today:
  • Chrome: every 6 weeks, planning to move to every 4 weeks in Q3 2021
  • Edge: every 6 weeks, planning to move to every 4 weeks in Q3 2021, with an 8-week stable enterprise option
  • Vivaldi: every 6 weeks
  • Firefox: every 4 weeks
  • Brave: every 3 weeks
  • Safari: every 6 months
Spot the odd one out.
Click to expand...
from Wiki
Screen Shot 2022-02-25 at 5.02.13 PM.png


Safari will hit 15.4 after so many builds when iOS/iPadOS is release. Best guess end of March. They don't label a minor version like Firefox who labels it a whole new 2 digit number.

In comparison Firefox has gone from 89 to version 96 in the same time period. Its seems like their whole number changes are always similar to a minor version for Mac Users. Their browser is used by multiple platforms of course.
 
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now i see it said:
Since WebKit on iOS historically sucks, (though admittedly it has gotten better) he11 yes iOS desperately needs another browser that actually works when Safari doesn’t.
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As an ignorant deplorable that doesnt even know why he visits this website.

What exactly is terrible about webkit in iOS? I have never had any problems...

Serious question. The real question to this entire thread, so I hope you have a good answer.
 
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Regulators need to ban the Apple BLE spy mesh network. Everything else is unimportant. If you remember one thing until your 80 remember this.
 
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No and here's why...

Why Google took years to address a battery-draining “bug” in Chrome

arstechnica.com

Why Google took years to address a battery-draining “bug” in Chrome

As with many browser problems, the answer boils down to “blame Flash.”…
arstechnica.com arstechnica.com

This ^^ makes portable windows devices look bad and tarnishes the reputation. If your brand depends on good performance as a selling feature you don't want existing customers telling other potential customers that your product has poor performance be it CPU or battery because they install a third party app that impacts the performance of your product.

Very few people are going the say "My iPhone/Ipad gets poor battery life because I installed a third party browser that performs poorly and kills battery life". What they'll most likely say is "Don't get an iPhone/iPad battery life is really bad"
 
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Realityck said:
from Wiki
View attachment 1965059

Safari will hit 15.4 after so many builds when 12.3 is released. Best guess end of March. They don't label a minor version like Firefox who labels it a whole new 2 digit number.

In comparison Firefox has gone from 89 to version 96 in the same time period. Its seems like their whole number changes are always similar to a minor version for Mac Users. Their browser is used by multiple platforms of course.
Click to expand...
It doesn't change that it takes way longer for features like biometric support to come to Safari. It discourages web developers from using those standards because that don't want to leave out iOS users.
 
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" Do we really want to live in a 95% Chromium browser world? That would be a horrible future for the web. We need more voices, not fewer "

What a bunch of none sense and double speak.

If you cared that Chrome does not take over the browser, whats the point of blocking Firefox's Gecko engine?
If Apple cared to "FREE" the world from Chrome, why does it not offer a Safari version for Windows, Linux, and Android like Firefox, Edge, and Brave are doing?

The truth is Apple want to lock in their customers and suck them with a straw as much as possible from everywhere, their browsing, hardware, music, video streaming, cloud storage, and as it seems even the cars they drive in the future.
 
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Chrome is owning a huge marketshare, especially in mobile, because Google forces OEMs to pre-install Chrome for the Android certification and GMS support. Sure, I can (and am) install other browsers with their own rendering engines on Android, but let's face it, hardly many consumers will change from what they're used to, and "Chrome" (and its icon) is already the de-facto browser brand that everybody knows.

Heck, even most iPhone users I know that don't use a mac will immediately install Chrome on their iPhones, simply due to the brand awareness. In the case of mobile, Apple enforcing Safari rendering engine on iOS might be a good thing, or else Chromium will literally be THE IE of today. People who uses Safari on iPhones are mostly people who also use a Mac, so they are familiar with the icon and brand. Otherwise, the lay people only knows Chrome.
 
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Well, that depends. I am torn. Usually I like competition. But, if apps had their own engines, well they could be doing some nefarious things. Think about password manager browsers for instance.
 
WTF to these developers?
I don't understand why but all this is nothing to do with consumers.
Dear Developers, you have the choice to choose your platform to run your BUSINESS.
Maybe the developer is lazy, want to apply the CEF directly in iOS.

Won't be surprised next time they will ask the A13 chip is anti-trust.
Apple need to allow Snapdragon and Exynos chip to allow in iPhone, iPad, and MacBook. Otherwise it is anti-trust.

Also, the camera, shouldn't use only SONY, they should open up for ALL other brands. There are many good brand in CHINA.

Battery also, cannot just use CATL, must open for other small brand, maybe XZY company in China, WST company in India, SPU company in Vietnam etc.

This world is crazy
 
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antiprotest said:
I use Safari on my iOS devices, but I don't care if other browsers have their own engines. However, what I would not want is for non-browser apps to have all kinds of different customized engines that I don't know about. For example, what if Yelp or DoorDash or Snapchat, Whatsapp, or a game app use unknown or customized engines for their own apps and we end up with 50 of them, not knowing their performance or security status? And once you permit real browsers to use their own engines, is there any excuse to forbid non-browser apps to use their own engines?

Not sure if this is potentially a real issue or not but just a thought. Perhaps somebody else is more educated about this.
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it is ranting from developer not consumers, they only care about $$$
 
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