'Open Web Advocacy' Group Battles Apple's WebKit-Based Walled Garden
The Register reported this week on a group of software developers launching a group called Open Web Advocacy "to help online apps compete with native apps and to encourage or compel Apple to relax its iOS browser restrictions." The group (OWA), organized by UK-based developers Stuart Langridge, Bruce Lawson, and others, aims to promote a more open web by explaining subtle technical details to lawmakers and to help them understand anti-competitive aspects of web technology. Over the past few months, group members have been communicating with the UK Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) to convince the agency that Apple's iOS browser policy harms competition. In conjunction with the debut of the group's website, the OWA plans to release a technical paper titled "Bringing Competition to Walled Gardens," that summarizes the group's position and aims to help regulators in the UK and elsewhere understand the consequences of web technology restrictions. The group is looking for like-minded developers to take up its cause.... The primary concern raised by Langridge and Lawson is that Apple's iOS App Store Guidelines require every browser running on iPhones and iPads to be based on WebKit, the open source project overseen by Apple that serves as the rendering engine for the company's Safari browser. "The OWA is now urging Apple users to contact regulators and legislators in other jurisdictions to galvanize support and force Apple to end its restrictions around WebKit," reports MacRumors, "although such a move could make sideloading apps from the web a real possibility, and that is something Apple appears equally reluctant to allow. Reuters reported today that Apple has now written to U.S. lawmakers "to dispute assertions that its concerns about the dangers of sideloading apps into phones were overblown...." Reuters points out that the U.S. Congress "is currently considering a bill aimed at reining in app stores run by Apple and Alphabet's Google, which would require companies to allow sideloading. Apple has argued that such a practice would be a security risk as it keeps tight control of the apps in the store in order to keep users safe." But OWA organizer Bruce Lawson tells the Register that as things stand now, "at the moment, every browser on iOS, whether it be badged Chrome, Firefox or Edge is actually just a branded skin of Safari, which lags behind [other browsers] because it has no competition on iOS." And something funny happened when the Register contacted Apple for a comment about why they're against App Store rule changes: To our astonishment, after having queries ignored for months, an Apple spokesperson responded, asking whether the company could correspond off-the-record. We replied that we would be happy to communicate off-the-record and then never heard back. Or if we did, we couldn't say.
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