Comment by hbn

7 months ago

As an iOS and web user, it is my desire that Apple doesn't allow other browser engines because immediately Google and other web devs will start pushing webapps that only work with mobile Chrome and we'll all be forced to install a Chromium browser to use certain websites, it becomes default and users will think "Safari sucks now, a bunch of websites don't work with it," finally ending Google's last bit of real competition in the browser space: Safari with its terrifying 17% marketshare.

That's not even getting into the resources/battery life aspect.

> Google and other web devs will start pushing webapps that only work with mobile Chrome

This is anti-competitive and should be illegal, too.

This. Exactly this.

As a web dev, I happen to love some of the tech advancements in Chromium, and as a nerd, I'd be thrilled to see it on iOS, just for the fun technical novelty of it all. But allowing it on iOS will downright kill WebKit, as web devs will just code for Chrome (as they already do). The floodgates will be opened.

As a user, I value battery life, smooth performance, and system integration (technically and visually). It's great to use an Apple browser on an Apple OS, just as it is nice to use Chrome on Android—everything fits together.

Gosh, I miss the pre-Blink days when WebKit was able to benefit from Chromium, but alas…

So to protect an artificially inflated browser engine you're willing to remove user choice and freedom to prevent a competitor from doing well? Microsoft was learned this was illegal many years ago. When the US government went after monopolies and didn't cosign them.