[Info Numerama] The day after announcing its compliance with the European Digital Markets Act, Apple communicated to Numerama the list of browsers that will be offered by default when configuring an iPhone for the first time in France. 12 choices will be possible.
From March 6, the European Union will impose a new regulation on several large tech companies: the Digital Markets Act. To comply with the “DMA”, Apple plans to make several historic changes to its iPhone. The brand announced on January 25 that it will allow the installation of applications from stores competing with the App Store, that it will open the NFC chip of its smartphones to competitors of Apple Pay or that it will offer to its customers to replace Safari with other browsers, if they wish.
It is precisely this aspect that interests us. The 27 countries of the European Union will not all have the same choices, since Apple will adapt to regional markets. In France, Apple has exclusively communicated to Numerama the list of 12 browsers which will be offered in iOS 17.4 in March.
12 browsers out of order
On Android, when configuring a smartphone for the first time, the user must choose their browser and search engine. It is also the European Union which imposes this.
With iOS 17.4, Apple will do things a little differently. The brand will not annoy its users when they first configure it, but when they open Safari for the first time (this also applies to Europeans who will update). In France, iPhone owners will have the choice between:
- Safari
- Aloha
- Brave
- Chromium
- DuckDuckGo
- Ecosia
- Edge
- Firefox
- Onion Browser
- Opera
- Private Browser Deluxe
- Qwant
To avoid favoring a browser, Apple indicates that this list will be presented randomly. No one will see the same thing.
WebKit engine soon to be replaced?
Another change announced by Apple: web browsers can now use their own engine, while Apple has always imposed its WebKit engine on iOS. Today, Chrome acts as Safari in disguise, with a few more features.
However, it is unclear whether the engine change will be beneficial for developers. To access the API, which is only valid in Europe, they will have to accept the new European conditions of the App Store, which add a tax of 50 cents per download above 1 million downloads. In the event that a Chrome with Chromium is downloaded 5 million times, Google will have to pay $181,159 to Apple, even if the application is only available on the App Store. That’s a lot for a free app.
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