Japan Law: iPhones Could Soon Offer More Browser Choices
It looks like Apple's grip on the iPhone's browsing experience is about to loosen, at least in Japan. A new law, the Mobile Software Competition Act, is set to shake things up by forcing Apple to allow browsers that don't rely on its WebKit engine.
For those who aren't deeply familiar with the tech world, WebKit is the engine that powers Safari. Currently, even if you download Chrome or Firefox on your iPhone, they're still essentially running on WebKit under the hood. This new law changes that, letting browsers like Chrome (which uses Blink) and Firefox (which uses Gecko) run their own engines on iOS. I'm curious to see how this will impact performance and features.
The official enforcement is planned to start in December. Apple already made a similar change in the EU, where it allows non-WebKit browsers to comply with the Digital Markets Act. However, according to some reports, Apple still imposes some strict requirements for these alternative browsers, so they aren't as popular as they should be.
Now, Japan's going a step further. The new law aims to prevent Apple from imposing "unreasonable technical restrictions" on these alternative browsers. To me, it signals a real push for fairer competition, and it's interesting to see how governments are stepping in to regulate the tech giants. I feel this might be good for the consumer in the long run.
On top of all that, users will also get a default browser selection screen in Safari, which will allow them to easily choose their favorite. It seems the UK may also follow suit, and make this a global movement.
Source: Mac Rumors