UK competition regulator wants to break Apple's and Google's mobile browser dominance

silversurfer

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The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is planning to launch an investigation into Apple’s and Google’s mobile browser practices on their respective platform. As a result, Apple could be forced to allow fully-fledged alternatives to Safari. Currently, Apple allows other browsers on iOS and iPadOS but they have to use Apple’s browser engine.

The decision to consult on an investigation comes after a year-long study found that Apple and Google have an “effective duopoly” on mobile ecosystems. With this power, the CMA said they have total control over operating systems, app stores, and web browsers on devices.

While forcing Apple and Google to be more liberal on their platforms will certainly be appealing to some, it’s important to remember why so many people like iPhones; they just work. By loosening Apple’s grip on its ecosystem, it potentially opens users up to less pleasant experiences such as browsers crashing or running more slowly. There’s also a chance that some websites won’t work properly with third-party browsers.

Commenting on its plans, Andrea Coscelli, Chief Executive of the CMA, said:
“When it comes to how people use mobile phones, Apple and Google hold all the cards. As good as many of their services and products are, their strong grip on mobile ecosystems allows them to shut out competitors, holding back the British tech sector and limiting choice.”
 

rain2reign

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This may sound hypocritical, but the reason Apple "just works" is because of it's closed ecosystem! They make everything themselves, from hardware to firmware to software, so I found it already "liberal" of them to even consider other browsers based upon safari's engine. You open that up, and the free-fall happens real quick.

On the contrary to that, Google only makes a select few things (they design a lot though...), mostly by assembling the right components. All the while, only started making its own consumer(!!) hardware, since a few years. Such an example would be their in-house CPU for the Pixel 6. They designed their ecosystem to be opened up from the beginning and ended up winning by making a software product through watching the competition first on their own platform.

(!!) = With this I mean, both designing and fabricating/manufacturing its own hardware and not licensing it to TSMC for chips or Qualcomm for CPU etc...
 
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