Apple already allows browsers like Chrome on the iPhone and iPad, but it’s not really Chrome.
The company forces third-party browsers to use the built-in WebKit rendering engine, the same one used by Safari.
Effectively, they are just Safari with a fancy wrapper.
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“They can provide more sophisticated accessibility features that are optimized for specific platforms and hardware.”
What Is a Rendering Engine?
Lets consider a very simple website.
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It is written in a computer language called HTML, which is just instructions written in plain text.
Every web app has a ‘rendering engine.’
This is the part that takes the text and acts on the instructions.
It then grabs any other bits referenced in that text (images, videos, etc.)
and lays them out into a nice web page.
On the desktop, different browsers use different rendering engines, with different strengths.
Removing these restrictions will increase competition.
These differences are what make your banks website run fine in Chrome, but look screwy in Safari.
There are good reasons for not allowing third-party engines.
Apple’s obsession with control is one.
It can also affect battery life.
Safari is highly optimized to use very little energy.
That’s the kind of thing Apple wants to avoid on iOS.
However, it may be giving up some of this control, and Google is ready to take advantage.
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“Removing these restrictions will increase competition.
No announcement has been made, and no plans revealed.
Anyone cansee the work, as it is part of an Open Source project.
This is good for Google, of course, because it will have more control.
But it will also be good for users.
Even better, the extra competition will force Apple to up its mobile web client game.
