This will be interesting to watch. Apple has become a dominant player in the mobile industry and being in that role it restricts what they can do now (and could earlier get away with). Bundling related rulings had huge impact in the past on e.g. IBM and Microsoft.
Apple is not that much dominant like Microsoft or IBM in the past.
In the mobile space? They own the mobile space. Which is why everything is labeled an "iPhone killer." No one labels a new product as an "Android killer."
Probably not the best way to renew their interest in web standards
Hard to know. If a court decision forces them to allow other browser (engines) on iOS and people start moving away from Safari Apple may decide that it is in their best interest to make Safari the best web experience if they want to (re)attract those customers. See Microsoft and Edge.
Right, but I know Apple has argued at W3C against certain web standards and for others on the basis of security in a mobile context, power efficiency and functional alignment with touch UI behaviours. We don't know why Apple has chosen to implement some features (so far) and not others. Do you really want French courts deciding those kinds of technical decisions or taking those decisions away from mobile platform vendors?
Why do they need to do that? Their platform, their rules. You don't want to play by Apple's rules then leave Apple's sandbox. This is absurd. You have no rights and no freedoms while using a vendor's software. They knew the restrictions going in. This is going to die quickly in the courts.
Do you feel the same way about Microsoft bundling Internet Explorer and trying to crush all competition in the browser market? Or do you only feel this way because it's Apple's sandbox? At least with Microsoft you _could_ install Netscape. What's your choice here? Buy an Android? I don't know you; this is a legitimate question. I don't actually know that I have an opinion on the underlying issue (I'm quite libertaria…
Microsoft had a functional monopoly on the desktop at the time of the IE wars.
It is long shot, in my opinion PR stunt. Cited law 'déséquilibre significatif entre les droits et obligations des parties' means 'significant imbalance between the rights and obligations of the parties' I dont even think it is related (it is not even translated in the post)
I think winning in civil court is less likely than triggering a review and fines by the EU. If I were in Apple's shoes, I would fix this now that Microsoft wont distract anyone from their behavior. Any one of these butterflies could land on the wrong desk.
Allowing alternative browsers on iOS would be great. But the real change will happen when there is a way for users to change the default. I hope that is part of their "request".
With just that smaller change people could start using any of the existing alternatives available right now.
Very Nice, hope this will get anywhere. Apple got too far with its restrictions, but I also hope that this doesnt go sideways directly into flash issues. :)
Some(Apple) may say that the web/browser ecosystem is mess and it's not worth the investment though. However the restrictions on 3rd party browsers is weird. The application is sandboxed (thus no additional security threats compared to other apps) so I think the argument is political not technical.