Apple’s Browser Engine Ban Persists, Even Under the DMA
It’s been 16 months since a DMA ruling allowed iOS developers like Google and Mozilla to use their own browser engines in the EU, so… where are they?
Open Web Advocacy (Hacker News):
Apple’s compliance did not start well. Faced with the genuine possibility of third-party browsers effectively powering web apps, Apple’s first instinct was to remove web app support entirely from iOS with no notice to either businesses or consumers. Under significant pressure from us and the Commission, Apple canceled their plan to sabotage web apps in the EU.
Both Google and Mozilla began porting their browser engines Blink and Gecko respectively to iOS. […] However there were significant issues with Apple’s contract and technical restrictions that made porting browser engines to iOS “as painful as possible” for browser vendors[…]
[…]
At the DMA workshop last week, we directly raised with Apple the primary blocker preventing third-party browser engines from shipping on iOS. Apple claimed that vendors like Google and Mozilla have “everything they need” to ship a browser engine in the EU and simply “have chosen not to do so”.
Apple has been fully aware of these barriers since at least June 2024, when we covered them in exhaustive detail. Multiple browser vendors have also discussed these same issues with Apple directly. The suggestion that Apple is unaware of the problems is not just ridiculous, it’s demonstrably false. Apple knows exactly what the issues are. It is simply refusing to address them.
Previously:
- Apple vs. the Law
- Apple’s DMA Compliance Criticized
- Apple to Defend Google Revenue Sharing Agreement
- iOS 17.4 Changes PWAs to Shortcuts in EU
- DMA Compliance: Alternative Browser Engines
4 Comments RSS · Twitter · Mastodon
I really liked this article.
> Apple gets an astonishing $20 billion a year from Google… accounting for 14-16 percent of Apple's annual operating profits. Safari's budget is… likely… $300-400 million per year. This means that Safari is one of Apple's most financially successful products and the highest margin product Apple has ever made.
I hadn't thought of it from a margins perspective.
> …browser vendors have to ship a whole new app just for the EU and tell their existing EU customers to download their new app and start building the user base from scratch.
Apple (and all big multinational corps) will only ever take malicious compliance. The admins who approved this are retarded for not seeing that nor remedying these problems much sooner.
@Hammer I hadn’t either but when one does everything they do makes a lot more sense.
Well except for their software design. Not sure what happened there.
They are cold, calculating, and lightning fast to make software changes that they think will affect the margins.
Basic usability and functionality, not so much. “Truly, we live in an age of wonders.”
Apple sued for antitrust/monopoly due to non standalone smartwatch. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple in March 2024, in part, due to the non-standalone nature of the Apple Watch and its alleged role in locking consumers into the iPhone ecosystem.
The DOJ’s Monopolization Case Against Apple
Smartwatches. The DOJ also alleges that Apple has suppressed the development of cross-platform smartwatches, steering consumers to Apple's smartwatch and thereby locking them into the iPhone ecosystem. The complaint contends that Apple degrades the functionality of third-party smartwatches by preventing them from responding to iPhone notifications, inhibiting them from maintaining reliable connections with iPhones, and undermining the performance of third-party smartwatches that connect directly with a cellular network. In doing so, the DOJ says, Apple bolsters its own smartwatch—Apple Watch—which does not face these disadvantages. Because Apple Watch is not compatible with other smartphones, purchases of Apple Watch raise the costs of switching from an iPhone to another smartphone. Thus, by favoring Apple Watch and degrading rival smartwatches, the DOJ claims, Apple helps solidify its smartphone monopoly.
https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/LSB11154
Waiting and waiting..... but still far from TestFlight
https://github.com/mullvad/mullvad-browser-ios
