14 days ago
- Apple's Safari/WebKit engine lags behind competitors like Chrome and Firefox in Web Platform Tests (WPT) pass rates, feature implementation, and improvement speed, despite Apple's massive revenue from web-related deals.
- Safari's slow release cycle and underfunding contribute to persistent bugs, fewer features, and lower conformance, forcing web developers to work around limitations and driving users toward Apple's App Store for a 30% cut.
- Apple's anti-competitive practices, including blocking more capable browsers on iOS, socialize costs across the ecosystem, extract profits, and hinder web progress, while marketing efforts distract from these issues.
- Blink/Chromium's development process emphasizes developer feedback, quality, and public iteration (e.g., via Origin Trials), aiming for interoperability and solving real problems, despite criticism and leading in features.
- The gap between Safari and competitors is evident in areas like CSS, HTML, networking, and new features (e.g., Temporal API), with WebKit having thousands of unique test failures and slower improvement rates.
- Apple's behavior mirrors past monopolistic tactics (e.g., Microsoft's IE), prioritizing control and profit over investment, which harms users, developers, and overall web innovation.