Apple need to move Safari to the App Store. A Browser only being updated with the OS in 2016 is ridiculous.
People use things when they have utility. They have utility when developers make something cool that uses them. Developers do this if there's a chance of mainstream adoption...
And it's amazing how rapidly they are able to invent a whole new programming language, compiler, toolchain, overhaul the OS APIs, add new OS features, and innovate Apple-only "native" technologies on Macs, iPhones, iPads, and even watches, while porting some features from open-source browsers into Safari is so darned "challenging". (I'll bet Apple could get some help from organizations with more resources like, say, Mozilla or Opera, if they just asked.)
I might suspect that they were intentionally impeding the progress of the Web, sabotaging all of us while putting on a great show, if it weren't for the fact that they allow other browsers, such as Chrome, on the iPhone. No, if they wanted to slow the progress of the Web platform, they would slow the development of their own browser as much as they dared and simultaneously cut off all detours around it except the one that goes through their own native apps.
But no, they aren't doing anything like that, because there's Chrome right there in the App Store. As long as it's not some sort of trick, some sort of imposter, there's no reason for suspicion....
Stated more plainly: http://www.howtogeek.com/184283/why-third-party-browsers-wil...
I must say this fact makes reading your last sentence quite humorous.
Chrome does not run on the iPhone - instead it's a Safari UIWKView (until two weeks ago UIWebView) - the only "Chrome" there is the UI on top of it.
Apple does not actually allow running Chrome on iOS so Google worked around it by giving you a handicapped version of Safari with Chrome UI that lets you share tabs between the computer and the box.
edit: just saw someone else posted a similar comment - so upvoted his - not deleting this since it has some additional info.
You think they aren't capable of that? Isn't it the same thing they are doing now with not supporting Vulkan and sabotaging open graphics API by pushing their lock-in Metal instead?
Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be open source.
As it has been said many times - they sell "experience", not merely products. Now, in today's tech market this is up for debate and fairly so, but people (the people who exclusively buy Apple products; in most cases because thsoe are Apple products) do believe they are buying that so called experience and what that experience lacks they explain to themselves as features.
I know that Safari does not support everything say Chrome does, but if you do not need those features, what does it matter? An example: I use Safari without having flash installed. I rarely need flash. If I do need it, I would rather open Chrome and close it when I am done with the flash thing and go back to Safari. Why? Why not use Chrome all the time since it supports (almost) everything Safari does and more? Well, because in my opinion, for what I use a browser for 99% of the time, Safari works better. I think it looks, performs, functions and feels better overall. So I would rather use Safari and switch to Chrome when I need something Safari does not do, or Chrome does better, even though on the paper spec, Chrome is the better browser.
It is the same reason I use an iPhone even though Android "has the same and more features".
People didn't catch on that IE was bad until almost a decade later, by then it had finally gotten not bad. These days I don't even have to think about it because my websites work better in it, more often than not, when I open them in it for the first time.
Safari is the one I have to worry about now. It isn't just features, it's page rendering. Not having WebRTC is something all on its own.
But web technology is extremely complex.
If you fall off spec, and then find yourself needing to support those off spec 'features' it holds everyone back for a long time. How long will it be before Safari users find out how frustrating they can be to web developers?
I'm a developer myself, and did webdevelopment professionally for 7 years until I switched paths 3 years ago. I know all about supporting multiple browsers and what not. But the thing is, Chrome just doesn't feel and look elegant and smooth like Safari does. The same with Firefox. That's why I use Safari 99% of the time.
There's a balance between functionality and design, and chrome seems more skewed towards functionality, and Safari towards design. When this is so, and Safari does all I need better than chrome 99% of the time, I naturally choose safari.
...and yes, Safari should be more standard compliant, I'm not disagreeing with you on those points.
I bet this feeling comes from the "smooth scrolling". Development Chrome currently has it, I really cannot imagine why didn't they do it earlier it's so trivial to do for major benefits.
Not supporting standards has nothing to do with design. It's either a deliberate sabotage of interoperaibility for the purpose of lock-in and anti-competitive crookedness (not unlikely for Apple), or simply total neglect. Either way, it results in technology being held back because Safari has enough of a market share to do it. That's why calling it "new IE" (in a derogatory way) is quite appropriate.