Whoa! Has Apple just changed its mind on one of the lamest policies plaguing its App Store?
In the weeks after the App Store submission process went live, a number of developers got a big smack in the face from Cupertino. After spending hundreds of hours developing their wares, they were turned away for offering features too similar to Apple’s own offerings, or “duplicate functionality”. The outcry was instantaneous and deafening; it’s one thing to have pride in your work, but to essentially ban competition is ridiculous.
Over the past 24 hours, it appears that a shift in this policy may have occurred. With Apple offering their own Mobile Safari browser on the iPhone, most expected that alternative browsers would never see the light of day. At the time of writing, at least 4 such browsers have suddenly been given the greenlight.
Ranging from free to $1.99, the now-approved browsers are: Edge Browser (Free), Incognito ($1.99), Webmate ($0.99), and Shaking Web ($1.99).
Is this an indication of an App-Store-wide policy change? We certainly hope so. Competition is good for everyone. Speaking of competition: Hey Skyfire and Mobile Firefox, the race is on.
[Via MacRumors]
I always love when there’s competition, because that is in the advantage of clients. I hate when people or companies use monopol power and”force” clients to use their products. I like Apple so far even thou I.m not that attracted to iPHONE PRODUCT. HTC is better in my oppinion.
Shaking Web is $1.99
Thanks, not sure why that got cut off.
It’s only a partial change. As Gizmodo mentioned, all these browsers are Webkit-based, so they’re basically Safari with a different suit. Then I see Skyfire, Opera, Firefox Mobile, or (god forbid) IE on the App Store, then its a change.
Personally, I use a Webkit-based browser on my WinMo 6.1 phone (Iris), and love it. But I have the choice to use others as I see fit, no App Store needed.
I noticed incognito yesterday. From what I can tell it’s just an embedded browser window which doesnt save history. Basically a 5 minute job. There’s plenty of apps which already embed the webkit browser but you know, actually add something useful to the app. Twitter and RSS readers being examples.
Way too much junk entering the App Store at the moment from greedy developers wanting a share of the pie but not willing to put in the dev time.
Edge Browser doesn’t appear to be available in the Canadian App Store :(
This open interesting doors. Adobe could position Adobe AIR as a browser, and sneak in their Flash platform in iPhone. Would not be too bad for the user (although, Apple might see through the scheme though)
I thought the absence of flash was related to some compatibility issues with the iphone’s processor. basically it crashes the operating system. I have a feeling that both apple and adobe want it on there but it needs to, well, work first.
I find it hard to believe that is the reason Flash isn’t on iPhone. Sure you can make a Flash program that will kill a processor, but the core technology in Flash is over 10 years old and hasn’t changed a lot in terms of the player. The scripting engine has gotten far more advanced but the core executable is still small, and so long as the programmer is smart in how they render animation and code a lightweight device should have no issue.
Aside from competition, there is another reason why you may never see Firefox, Opera or Chrome on the iPhone — hint: the same reason why there is no Adobe Flash on iPhone.
Welcome to Web $2.0 - 1c :)
I think it’s a really good news indeed - not only developers will be able to release the software which fits some of us better than Apple’s, but Apple itself will need to compete and keep in line with 3rd-party developers.
hillo.,.,.,
We’ll see if they allow third-party browsers that aren’t based on their own Safari. Would be nice to see a Firefox browser.
Yeah, when you mean “alternate to Safari”, its definitely going to be Firefox (I mean iFirefox).
Would be interesting to see all iPhone users using firefox rather than Safari….
But that won’t happen. If you have a mac, you already know that firefox is much slower than safari on the graphic side… and the iPhone has an OS X for operating system, too.
Plus, if you’re a web developer, you know that Webkit is by far the faster browser for Javascript, and the faster for HTML/CSS rendering.
That’s one of the main reasons why Google, Nokia and Motorola use Webkit for their phone browsers : it has to be very optimized.
So you might love Firefox on windows, but you probably won’t like firefox on an OS X with a less powerful processor than your PC…
Hey Jash, wouldn’t Firefox on the iPhone be iPhirefox?
Honestly, would Apple please come out and state their policy on competing applications?
I can see how it’s to their advantage no to state their policy, then they can reject any app they don’t like. They could still take a general position while reserving the right of refusal.
I wonder how the tone in the comments and also the public response (lawsuites, etc…) would be if MS released a phone that only allow you to use IE or browsers based on IE components?…..
I guess that Apple is excused because they have been the underdog before, which is not the case anymore since the iPhone got released…
- By someone that prefers equal judgements to issues
Big second on that one! If MS pulled this ‘only our browser on our phone’ shit - they did, remember the ‘only IE native on Windows’ anti-trust of the 90’s? - they would have the Justice Department, the fair-weather Public, tons of other software manufacturers, Green Peace, the Democratic Party, Mickey Mouse, Tom…and Jerry… all eager to pick at them like vultures for being so villainous. Now that the iPhone (which is going to get stomped like a pumpkin on Halloween by the Pre!) is the #1 best selling phone in America I want to see the Government go all Sherman Antitrust on their ass.
Do any of you remember Apple charging Airport Extreme wifi router buyers a fee for firmware to ‘unlock’ draft-N speed: http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2007/01/15/6637
I swear this level of double standard is something available only to his Steveness.
Oh, as a parting shot to the fledgling iPhone devs, have fun with $250 regional revenue barrier, that truly sucks ballz: http://www.tuaw.com/2008/06/27/are-iphone-app-devs-getting-a-raw-deal/
The fee was an accounting requirement. Check your facts before you post.
Skyfire would be HOT on the iPhone. I hope they jump on this.
Does this mean that we may see iphone browsers that allow for the uploading of images? I doubt it.. I’m convinced that appled blocked this feature in the browser to force developers to build native apps and hence push the app store which they can monetize unlike the web apps which they can’t.
getting tired of seeing headlines reading with “Did ____ just ____ ?”
if you’re writing the story, its obvious you already know, so why are you asking us???? is it a cheap mechanism to create some excitement over the mundane daily garbage of the world of tech???
Apple always fascinates, I hope Steve Jobs is healthy. We need his mind in this world :)
Does this mean developers having to worry about browser incompatibilitiy issues on the iPhone too?
To defend Apple for just one second; as a businessman I know that launching a product, feature, or service for the first time is treacherous. In an industry where everything is hacked and broken before most of us can even get to the store and buy it and where many of those same enthusiasts whine and whinge (loudly and ubiquitously) about the most esoteric flaws and limitations; it is perfectly understandable that they would seek to have their system stressed as little as possible by applications beyond their control. Give them time, it’ll open up. Let Apple insure the user experience is solid and positive before we rail against them for not allowing every app created by every programmer to have access to the core of their system!
these are not “alternate browsers” !
they are just iphone apps that call UIWebView* - the native webkit component - with some external API calls (to prevent screen orientation change, hide the “chrome” and add bookmarking - “tabbing” )
got me excited for nothing.
exactly
no way be “3rd party browsers” like firefox and chrome
Google must have put a lot of pressure on Apple. Expect an announcement very soon for Google Chrome on the iPhone.
Nice research Greg.
These kinds of apps have always been allowed in the app store.
1Password has been in the app store since July 17.
Cooliris has been in the app store since October 22. Both are alternate Webkit based browsers.
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hi,
Where can I find IE for Iphone, on Itunes, or Microsoft Website ?
Thanks
Fred
http://www.omniscoloris.fr
i dont think you can get IE for iphone.. gl