An engineer who has spent the last ten years working on web browser projects at Google and Microsoft has objected to Apple being described as a champion in this field. Alex Russell states that the opposite is true, saying that Apple is trying to undermine browser engine diversity by using its weight in the hardware and mobile operating system market.
“Contrary to what Apple fans claim, the iOS engine does not prevent the use of Chromium, but Apple uses its power over browsers to sabotage the web, stand in the way of all new engine developments and prevent the web from showing its full potential,” says Russell.
The main criticism is that the company continues to push developers to use the inferior WebKit engine if they want to release a browser on iOS, a platform used by over a billion people worldwide. Russell acknowledges that the developers working on WebKit are very talented, but argues that Apple has significantly underfunded the browser engine, thus making it unable to compete with Blink’s (Chromium-based) counterparts.
As a result, third-party developers incur significant additional costs associated with building their apps for multiple engines, and the iOS browser market lacks innovation. It is recalled that Firefox’s maker, Mozilla, came to iOS nearly seven years late as a result of Apple’s stringent requirements.
Russell notes that Apple has also made it harder to change the default browser on iOS. Apple only made this change possible with the coming of antitrust legislation in 2020. However, in some cases, iOS may still open links in Safari instead of the newly set up web browser.
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