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After Apple reassert yesterdayit ’s breaking web apps for customersin the EU due to itscompliancewith the EU regulation the Digital Markets Act ( DMA ) , Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeneysuggests in a post on Xthere ’s another reason behind Apple ’s decision : iPhone web apps do n’t make Apple money . Sweeney , whose companysued Apple over antitrust concernsrelated to App Store fees , is obviously a coloured germ on the subject , but he invoke a enquiry that ’s on everyone ’s mind . Did Apple break iPhone web apps because it was looking to protect customers from security risks arising from third - political party browser app engine , as it claims , or was the decision more about repress a potential scourge to Apple ’s business ?
Would Apple really go so far as to degrade the consumer experience on iPhone to protect its revenue , in other words ?
The iPhone maker on Thursday published an update to itswebsite detailing its DMA - related changes in the EUto address the thing , after the discovery that iPhone web apps — also known as progressive web apps , or PWAs — were no longer functional in the recent iOS betas in the EU . ab initio , there was concern that the issues were just a genus Beta bug , but Apple before long put that theory to rest .
On its website , Apple explainsthat to comply with the DMA , it ’s being forced to support other web web internet browser engine besides WebKit — the web internet browser engine used by Safari . iOS Home Screen web apps have trust on WebKit and its security computer architecture to keep drug user safe from online threats . This involves the isolation of memory board and the enforcement of “ organisation prompts to access privacy - impacting capabilities , ” Apple said .
Without this closing off and enforcement , malicious WWW apps could read data from other apps and gain access to a drug user ’s camera , microphone or location with exploiter consent , the company take down . Since Apple is being squeeze to allow substitute web web browser engines via the DMA ’s requirements , the party choose not to put users at risk and instead degraded the web app experience on iOS for exploiter in the EU . Now , web apps will work as website bookmark — without musical accompaniment for local storage , badges , notifications and consecrate windowing .
I surmise Apple ’s genuine cause for killing PWAs is the realisation that contend web browsers could do a vastly good job of supporting PWAs – unlike Safari ’s advisedly crippled web functionality – and plough PWAs into legit , tax-free competitors to native apps.https://t.co/RrqQamVdYX
— Tim Sweeney ( @TimSweeneyEpic)February 15 , 2024
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Though Sweeney arguably has a pearl to pick with Apple , there may be some truth to his claims . Within Apple ’s explanation of why it has terminate support for WWW apps in the EU , the company admits there ’s a technological root to the security upshot problem — but it just pick out not to follow out it .
Apple wrote ( accent ours ):
accost the complex security and concealment concerns associated with WWW apps using alternative web browser engineswould ask building an entirely new integration architecturethat does not currently exist in iOS and was not practical to undertake given the other demands of the DMA and the very low substance abuser adoption of Home Screen vane apps .
In short , Apple is suppose it do it how to sterilise the problem but because it ’s been burdened by have to comply with the DMA — which it noted had required “ more than 600 new APIs and a wide kitchen stove of developer cock ” — it decide to skip fixing this one .
While it may be no small exploit to progress “ an entirely unexampled desegregation computer architecture , ” it also is n’t as if Apple was storm by the DMA , aregulationthat ’s been in the works for years . It had time to prepare for this . To further distract any blameworthiness here , Apple suggest that hoi polloi wo n’t beware that it break off Home Screen internet apps , given their “ grim drug user adoption . ”
But Apple ’s own move contradict that explanation . If anything , Apple has been working to make PWAs more utile over the years , addingfeaturesthat allowed entanglement apps to function more like aboriginal apps , and be easily distributed outside its App Store . Meanwhile , user adoption has been grow , not cringe . Analysts estimated that the PWA marketwould reach $ 10.44 billion by 2027 , at a colonial yearly growth rate of 31.9 % .
It ’s entirely potential that alternative internet browser locomotive engine could make PWAs even more utilitarian , as Sweeney argues , which would be a threat to Apple ’s App Store business , given the web apps are now nearly as functional as native apps are .
Apple had been asked to comment on its conclusion around PWAs , but it only published an account to its DMA website as its response .
Apple confirms it ’s breaking iPhone WWW apps in the EU on purpose
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