Brave, Mozilla, Vivaldi see browser installs rise on iOS
www.theregister.com
Thanks to Europe forcing Apple to offer a browser choice screen. Now, about ditching WebKit ...

Since Apple implemented a browser choice screen for iPhones earlier this month to comply with Europe’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), Brave Software, Mozilla, and Vivaldi have seen a surge in the number of people installing their web browsers.

It’s an early sign that Europe’s competition rules may actually … get this … enhance competition – an outcome that skeptics deemed unlikely.

  • ForgotAboutDre@lemmy.world
    21·
    8 months ago

    On macbooks Safari is excellent for battery life. Absolutely blows every other browser out the water. If the same optimisation has been done on mobile, then people will go back for that alone. Safari has less add-ons and a less intuitive interface (if your not accustomed to Mac) but the longer battery life makes up for the inadequacy.

    • GiuseppeAndTheYetiEnglish
      72·
      8 months ago

      I’d wager that the battery life comparison would be essentially negligible in day to day use.

      • ForgotAboutDre@lemmy.world
        21·
        8 months ago

        It’s night and day on macos. I wouldn’t be surprised if we start to hear people complain about chrome on iOS in the EU if they implement the chrome engine.

        Apple doesn’t have much of a reason to force it’s own browser on iOS. They aren’t involved in selling adverts like Google and Microsoft. They also aren’t players in web technology in the same way as Google and MS. I suspect their big motivation in keeping chrome, edge and Firefox off the iPhone is to control the user experience an aspect of that being the battery life. The WebKit approach lets them have the browser and features like password managers, without sacrificing power consumption. If it want to keep Safaris user share they wouldn’t have allowed them at all in the iOS store.

        Google doesn’t bother with optimising chrome performance on any platforms. Even their pixels and Chromebooks. It’s just not a factor for them.

        • GiuseppeAndTheYetiEnglish
          21·
          8 months ago

          I use a Motorola Edge+ 2023 with a 5100 mAh battery. The iPhone 15 Plus has a 4383 mAh battery which is about as close as I can get in comparisons. I run Firefox as my preferred browser AND for YouTube playback with uBlock Origin for a couple hours a day and it still lasts me a whole day. I normally only need to charge it to full in the morning while I eat breakfast and will normally get a low battery alert at 20% around 8pm. That’s about 12 hours with pretty heavy use.

          The iPhone 15 plus was given an active use score of 16.5 hours by gsm arena. So regardless, you’re charging about once a day.

        • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
          33·
          8 months ago

          What?? Apple has a huge vested interest in keeping their browser the only option. That’s why it took regulation to force them to do otherwise

          If their web browser is too good, they risk losing out on app store money because people will just use web apps when they can. So they intentionally hold back the web, directly for profit reasons. Fuck apple.

          • ForgotAboutDre@lemmy.world
            31·
            8 months ago

            Many apps are just web app packaged up in an app. Even on iOS. This wouldn’t work for apple.

            It not like people on Android are using web apps significantly more than iOS. Often on android websites are artificially limiting what you can do on the web app to push you to download their app (many of which are this packaging).

            The biggest hold on web apps is websites.

            Apple had to be forced to allow other browsers to be default because they get billions from Google each year. All because safari defaults to Google search. This is what would motivate apple to restrict the default web browser.

            Changing the web engine isn’t rely a factor in web apps. Safari is very capable. Websites generally work on safari, many that don’t work right on firefox. This isn’t because Firefox or safari is bad, but because Devs develop solely for chrome.

            • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
              15·
              8 months ago

              I couldn’t even begin to correct every misunderstanding you have. Even if I could it would take minimum of an hour. You shouldn’t be so confident.

        • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
          24·
          8 months ago

          I just read your comment again. I don’t think you said one thing that is true. Wow…

      • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
        13·
        8 months ago

        Yes I fully agree. Even if other browsers used 5x the battery, most would never notice

    • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
      24·
      8 months ago

      … So in your mind people are using web browsers for hours and hours on their phones, enough to notice battery life issues? I question that. Maybe 2% of people would. But my guess is many of those would value features that Safari doesn’t have. As a web developer, that browser is beyond trash. Maybe it doesn’t drain batteries as quickly because it flat out doesn’t support huge swathes of w3c approved features.

      • ForgotAboutDre@lemmy.world
        11·
        8 months ago

        Many apps are just a web page packaged into an app. So safaris engine is being used their as well. So it’s impact is bigger than just browsing.