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Comment by qingcharles | Hacker News Reader

I feel like there are a lot of iOS/iPadOS 17 and below devices holding things back right now. Desktop browsers are in a really good standards space now with their constant and frequent nagging for users to update.

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Apple is the only ones holding anything back on iOS. They forbid any browser except Safari. At least if they let Google Chrome or any other browser maker use their own browser engine, iOS could have a capable browser installed. It is one reason among many Apple is being sued by the DOJ, but so far no progress forcing them to allow other browser engines like they did in the EU.

IMO if they had allowed Firefox onto the App Store (Mozilla have had working ports more than once AFAIK) it might have helped it hold onto market share - I think Apple is partly responsible for the Chrome monoculture.

If that were the case then why isn’t Firefox on mobile on Android more successful? Apple blocking other browser engines in iOS is the only thing preventing a complete hegemony of the web by Google/Blink.

Different platforms, different tastes.

Facebook's Threads app has more activity on iOS than Android[1].

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[1] https://pxlnv.com/linklog/threads-android-ranking/

I could be entirely off base, but I would expect Android to be more likely to have more users that would go out of their way to use a non-default web browser, given that it seems to be favored by people who like customizing things. The relative openness of the platform invites a different demographic.

On the other hand, the default on Android is Chrome so there may be less motivation to change since it's the 'default' platform to target. But if Apple opened up iOS to other browsers, the likely outcome would not be Firefox gaining market share but Chrome completely taking over.

I do not like that iOS doesn't allow for alternative engines but I appreciate that it's basically the only thing that even somewhat reigns Google in.

People can hardly wait to get ChromeOS Platform it seems.

Yet another step towards a total Google monopoly, yay!

No it isn't. People should be free to use software they like, and not get subterfuge like they get from Apple. What Apple has now is a total monopoly on iOS browsers. It's far worse than what Microsoft did to get sued for antitrust violations when they simply bundled IE with Windows - at least Microsoft didn't forbid installation of any other browser engine like Apple is doing on iOS.

If Apple didn't purposely hobble Safari and forbid other browser engines so that developers had no choice but to develop an app for the app store where Apple can then skim 30% off all purchases, there wouldn't be as much of a need to allow other browser engines. For Apple it's completely about greed.

https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/media/1344546/dl?inline

I’m typing this in Vivaldi on my iPhone 11 in the UK.

I acknowledge my privilege.

you can get Vivaldi outside the UK, the issue is the web engine, is it different in the UK?

I can’t wait for websites to tell me I need to install Chrome on my phone.

Me too! If you want to do cool things with a web browser, you sure can't do it with Safari. And how many times have you been told you need to install a specific app to access a specific service? For me it's too many to count.

If a web browser doesn't support an API, they're essentially saying: If you want to do this, you have to make people install a native app. And the websites reponse is: Fine, I'll make people install a native app: Chrome.

Yes and that’s why there are such great web apps for Android and companies that make apps for iOS just tell Android users to use the web because the web experience on Android is so great.

Oh wait that’s totally not the case. The fact is that the web sucks as an app platform for mobile.

>The fact is that the web sucks as an app platform for mobile.

That isn't a fact, that's only your opinion.

Speaking of iOS holding things back, my iPhone’s Safari doesn’t offer a reader for this post. Not sure why.

The ai detected it was talking poorly about it and decided to retaliate.

iOS Safari's reader mode heuristics has always been mediocre at best, and it's getting less useful by the day as more publications knowingly cripple it. It used to be that you can get around some soft paywalls with reader mode, especially if you turn on "Use Reader Automatically" which distills the content before JavaScript kicks in to remove it. Nowadays that works on fewer and fewer commercial websites, and the other day I noticed something truly shocking on a pretty mainstream tech publication (don't remember which one unfortunately): I can see like two paragraphs of content before the paywall, but when I turn on reader mode, the content shown is literally a list of Christmas laptop deals (that is not visible on the non-reader page), with the title being the only relevant thing.

Yeah, as long they are Chrome forks.

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