Awesome
Apple Browser Ban
I love freedom, innovation and progress.
Today (year 2021) we are used to install native applications on our smartphones. But why?
- Installing applications is annoying.
- Developing native applications is much more difficult than developing web based applications
- Developing a web frontend and a native app is useless/duplicated work.
Apple is restricting freedom, innovation and progress with the restriction that only WebKit based applications are allowed in iOS:
Apple Store Review Guidelines:
2.5.6 Apps that browse the web must use the appropriate WebKit framework and WebKit Javascript.
Apple Store Review Guidelines 2.5.6
What I want:
- As I user a want to be able run the chromium browser engine on iPhone and iPad
- As I user I want my web-browser to have great offline capabilities like native apps have. See What are Progressive Web Apps?
- As a user I want my browser to by my new desktop. I want to create bookmarks and send hyperlinks from all pages.
- As a developer I want to write code once and I want users to be able to access my application by following a hyperlink. I want my users give access to my web application without requiring them to install a native app.
- As an enterpreneur I want to reduce development costs: I don't want to be "Waiting for Review" by the app store owner. I want publish new version within minutes.
You find the latest news about this topic at #AppleBrowserBan (twitter)
This is a small collection of links and notes about "Apple Browser Ban".
Related
Articles
Apple and Google duopoly limits competition and choice
I’ve taken a look at several recent articles about the Apple browser ban. People are making great arguments, but I don’t think Apple cares much about them. So let’s try something else. I will play Apple, and you try to persuade me to end the browser ban. The goal is to find arguments that could motivate Apple to end the ban.
there is no browser choice on iOS. It’s all Safari. You can download apps that are named Chrome or Firefox, or anything else, but they are just veneer over Safari. If you’re viewing a website on iOS, it’s Safari.
iOS Browser Choice, Chris Coyier on Sep 28, 2021
By forcing browser vendors like Google, Microsoft and Mozilla to use the WebKit browser engine, Apple is deliberately restricting the functionality of web apps on iOS. It’s why many of the features of progressive web apps (PWAs) do not work on an iPhone or iPad.
Apple’s Browser Engine Ban Is Holding Back Web App Innovation 27 Sep 2021, by Richard MacManus
Instead, Apple is inhibiting this future Internet. And it does so via tolls, controls, and technologies that not only deny what made and still makes the open web so powerful, but also prevents competition, and prioritize Apple’s own profits.
Apple, Its Control Over the iPhone, and The Internet Feb 2, 2021 - Written By Matthew Ball
WebKit, by contrast, has in recent years gone so far as to publicly, pre-emptively "decline to implement" a veritable truckload features that some vendors feel are essential and would be willing to ship in their products.
iOS Engine Choice In Depth by Alex Russell
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