WebKit lock in is a way to prevent web apps from disrupting appstore cash cow. Appstore is rentseeking on popularity/market position of the iPhone/iOS - and clearly worded above - appstore distribution monopoly is anticompetitive.
If the lack of alternate browsers are the only thing stopping app developers from making better PWAs, then why are all the same developers making iOS apps, Android apps and web apps instead of just making iOS apps and web apps?
And where are all of the successful profitable Android apps that are bypassing the Play Store?
If iOS had open browser engines I guarantee you two things :
- evolution of web standards would be different
- web mobile games would be a thing
The 30% cut would incentivise big distributors to invest in it (Epic/Steam). It was enough to get epic to risk getting baned from appstore
If Apple is holding back “web mobile games”, why aren’t developers making games for iOS and the web instead of iOS and Android? As a mobile game developer wouldn’t it be logical to skip making a native game for Android and just make one for the web that covers Android and computers?
So, how successful do you think a store would be if its made difficult to install and difficult to create software for? Is it any surprise there are no successful profitable apps?
> WebKit lock in is a way to prevent web apps from disrupting appstore cash cow
The Mozilla cooperation mostly survives because of Google funding it to be the default search engine. Even Microsoft decided it didn’t make sense to keep developing its own browser engine. How is a company going to make money creating browser? No company has successful made a profit from people paying for a browser - ever.
Yes, I was around and into computers when the first browsers came out. I was actually writing extensions to a custom Mac Gopher server before the web became popular.