this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2023
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Safari is holding back the web with their old, quirky, outdated engine. However, as Safari's engine is the only option for iOS, most web developers can't afford to ignore Safari because they can't ignore the iPhone. So it's IE all over again - an old, outdated browser that everyone nevertheless has to support as a significant portion of the users are using it. In some ways it's even worse, as iPhone users don't have any choice due to Apple's restrictions, but even in the darkest days of IE's stranglehold on the web Microsoft never restricted what browsers you could install on Windows.
That's going to change next year thanks to the Digital Markets Act in Europe. Third-party app stores will have to be allowed on iPhones which means different browser engines will be able to be installed on iOS.
Won't most people see it as too much hassle?
I can imagine app-developers that do no want to pay 30% of their earnings to Apple, opensource apps, alternative browsers like Brave, Firefox, Chrome/Chromium, game developers like Epic, and others that cannot or don't want to provide their apps on the standard app store, will be exclusive to third-party stores. If some of those happen to be killer apps or start trending, then maybe it's possible Apple users will take a step outside their walled garden.
It's entirely possible Apple will try to make the third party app store a nigh intolerable experience or make advertisements and officials claims that it's safer without third-party stores or whatever. Standard corporate bullshit.