I'm at an EU workshop for Apple to discuss and justify its DMA compliance plans. They've been forced into 3 huge u-turns by EU (killing PWAs, removing Epic Games' developer licenses, sideloading) so I'm interested to see their demeanour. Will it be humility, or the usual 'fuck you, we're Apple'? There are people from EU companies that Apple blithely planned to bankrupt by sneakily removing PWAs here. And regulators have human feelings too; no-one like "fuck you". I'll be here all day (try the baguettes!)
Apple's VP just said ""Apple has done a lot to enable web apps over the years and will continue to do so. If developers want a specific feature they can 'reach out', or come to WWDC". Web Apps do not incur Core Technology Fee.
This new Apple love for web apps is somewhat surprising so soon after some naughty boys from, er, Apple tried to sneak out and drown Home Screen Apps in a bucket without telling anyone, then bawled "The EU made me do it!" when they were caught. https://brucelawson.co.uk/2024/happy-dma-day-to-all/
And lunch. The excitement resumes in 1 hour. Stay tuned while your intrepid reporter wolfs down a reheated chicken biryani during an unrelated meeting …
And we're back, for the session on Interoperability. "Interop will always be an essential design principle when designing new versions of iOS. Each year we reinvent iPhone to add new features etc. We err on the side of protecting users."
"There's a new process for developers to submit new interoperability requests. Apple will decide if those fit within scope of DMA. If it does, Apple decides if effective interop exists. If it doesn't, we'll decide if we can open it up and open a tentative project plan. If we decide against it, we'll tell the developer."
"We've done this in order to open up a dialogue between Apple and developers. … the risks to privacy and security are real." And now to alternative browser engines....
3rd party engines - including in-app browsers - will have access to a set of iOS APIs on a managed entitlement basis. They will have access to JIT compilations. "We're confident that most major browser vendors already meet relevant security and privacy thresholds."
"We believe WebKit is the best and will therefore keep it as a requirement outside the EU. It has allowed Apple to send important security updates to all apps."
Some more stuff about how WebKit is deeply integrated into iOS and the hard, hard work that Apple is doing to decouple them. (There has, apparently, never been a major security problem with WebKit and iOS. Ahem, xCode Ghost apps)
@matt Or Apple could compete and make webkit so great people want to use it (as on Mac). If anyone has marketing clout, engineering nouse and brand loyalty to compete with Google, Apple can.