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Apple's intentional crippling of Mobile Safari

pwa.gripe

341–343 of 343 posts

Re: Apple's intentional crippling of Mobile Safari

#341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't think Apple is terribly interested in market share for Safari Google pays Apple $20B a year because of the market share Safari has on iOS. I'd call that "interest" That's 10% of their turnover (and likely mostly pure profit, as they seem to spend a fraction of that on Safari)

Try again. Anyone can write a browser that uses the existing web engine and connect it to any search engine they want. Make it popular enough, and they can made a deal with Google. Having Safari is a default browser is another (valid) issue, but that is a separate concern from the web engine.

But if the web engine you have to use is a) shitty and b) the same as everyone else (except slightly shittier [1]), how are you going to make it popular?

The browser engine is an important piece of the puzzle when it comes to getting people to switch browsers. If a site works faster or better on browser B, that's a reason to switch.

If Apple's WebKit engine doesn't allow you to do video calls, you could build that into your engine and actually compete.

Why would Google and Mozilla spend millions on developing and maintaining their own engines if they didn't think that it provides value, e.g. a competitive edge?

[1] In the past, Safari did get some features that other browsers on iOS didn't get, e.g. Being the default browser (you couldn't set Chrome or any other browser as the default until iOS 14(!), Nitro JIT (Safari was significantly faster than other browsers on iOS for 4 yrs), camera and microphone access (video calls only worked in Safari), Web Extensions, Apple Pay, Fullscreen API, Add to Home Screen (ironically)...

Re: Apple's intentional crippling of Mobile Safari

#342
post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A feature that is shipped in a single browser is just that: that browser's non-interoperable feature. AFAIK, the popover and/or anchor positioning APIs was standards before it shipped in more than one browser. (I will say that all three(?) of them agreed to build it) > "it's a napkin scribble, not on any standards track". Chromium/Blink have a process, and it's quite rigorous (precisely because they understand that…

> I will say that all three(?) of them agreed to build it This is the key sentence > Chromium/Blink have a process, and it's quite rigorous It's Chrome's process, and Chrome's deadlines. > they have a responsibility to make sure it's good) Strange then that they routinely don't wait for and ignore any and all input from other browser vendors and ship their own APIs without any consensus or agreement because "their ri…

> Strange then that they routinely don't wait for and ignore any and all input from other browser vendors

It's not strange when you consider that other browser vendors sometimes flat out refuse or delay. The only option, then, is to just go ahead, spec, build and launch it, and let the market decide whether to push those vendors to reconsider.

"The Power of 'No' in Internet Standards"

https://www.mnot.net/blog/2026/02/13/no

"How Do Committees Fail To Invent?"

https://infrequently.org/2025/08/how-do-committees-fail-to-i...

Re: Apple's intentional crippling of Mobile Safari

#343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's about security and privacy, why push more people away from the Web to native apps that they know is less secure [1][2]? > WebKit’s sandbox profile on iOS is orders of magnitude more stringent than the sandbox for native iOS apps. [1] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/62277271d3bf7... [2] https://open-web-advocacy.org/apple-dma-review

Native iOS apps are sandboxed and even more secure. The reason the web engine is tied down is because web engines are insecure by nature. And now you want Apple to allow anyone to write one?

> even more secure

Based on what? Happy to be wrong, but the quote in my reply was Apple's stance on the WebKit vs native iOS apps

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