The exorbitant costs of developing an interoperable application that functions identically to what Apple has to offer make it feasible only for well-funded companies. These costs are in addition to the App Store’s 15% to 30% tax, which Apple has so fiercely protected to date. This WebKit-only approach forces companies to create multiple distinct applications for each platform, significantly increasing the costs and complexities of development and maintenance. Next, let’s explore the competition perspective, which is what ultimately forced the EU to look into the WebKit situation. Oher browsers have also been historically kept from installing Web Apps, using the all-too-important extensions, or integrating Apple Pay to the same extent as Safari. Safari has been granted the ability to display videos in full screen, while other browsers are prohibited from doing so, except on iPad. Apple, of course, gives preferential treatment to Safari when it comes to accessing the native system on iPhones. It’s also about giving Safari an unfair edge because Apple controls the entire implementation of any browser that runs on the iPhone. It’s all about preferential treatment Andy Boxall / Digital Trendsīut it’s not just the lack of features that is concerning. Ultimately, for an average iPhone user, the key aspect is the software that operates on actual devices. Unlike in iOS, where Apple solely controls feature inclusion, browser vendors have the liberty to choose features when using Chromium on Android. This is evident in the Chromium browser ecosystem ,as well. It’s also telling that a team with such bright minds has only released a companion Arc app on iOS and not a full-fledged revolutionary mobile browser - because they know full well that they won’t get the same kind of flexibility with iOS (due to WebKit) as they do on macOS for building a fantastic desktop browser. Just take a look at what the folks behind the Arc browser have managed to accomplish in totally reimagining how a browser looks and works in the desktop ecosystem. On the other hand, in a market with genuine browser choices, third parties could develop their own browsers from scratch. This limitation chokes the ability of iOS browsers to stand out through soft forks. Third-party browser vendors have no other option but to use a highly specific version of WebKit, with no flexibility to modify the engine’s features, including the activation or deactivation of existing features in the source code. Just take a look at this feature comparison compiled by Open Web Advocacy to get a grasp of the problem: Open Web Advocacy This policy also means that Apple has the final say on which features are supported on Safari. To put it simply, browser apps like Chrome, Firefox, Brave, DuckDuckGo, and others can be installed on an iPhone, but they merely serve as superficial overlays on Apple’s WebKit engine. You won’t believe how I improved my phone’s battery lifeĪpple is updating one of the oldest apps on your iPhone I finally found a reason to love USB-C on the iPhone 15
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