Infrequently Noted

Gentle reader, I made a terrible mistake. Yes, that's right: I read the comments on a MacRumors article. At my age, one knows better. And yet.

As penance for this error, and for being short with Miguel, I must deconstruct the ways Apple has undermined browser engine diversity. Contrary to claims of Apple partisans, iOS engine restrictions are not preventing a "takeover" by Chromium — at least that's not the primary effect. Apple uses its power over browsers to strip-mine and sabotage the web, hurting all engine projects and draining the web of future potential.

As we will see, both the present and future of browser engine choice are squarely within Cupertino's control.

Apple's Long-Standing Policies Are Anti-Diversity #

A refresher on Apple's iOS browser policies:

• From iOS 2.0 in '08 to iOS 14 in late '20, Apple would not allow any browser but Safari to be the default.
• For 14 years and counting, Apple has prevented competing browsers from bringing their own engines, forcing vendors to build skins over Apple's WebKit binary, which has historically been slower, less secure, and lacking in features.
• Apple will not even allow competing browsers to provide different runtime flags to WebKit. Instead, Fruit Co. publishes a paltry set of options that carry an unmistakable odour of first-party app requirements.
• Apple continues to self-preference through exclusive API access for Safari; e.g., the ability to install PWAs to the home screen, implement media codecs, and much else.

Defenders of Apple's monopoly offer hard-to-test claims, but many boil down to the idea that Apple's product is inferior by necessity. This line is frankly insulting to the good people that work on WebKit. They're excellent engineers; some of the best, pound for pound, but there aren't enough of them. And that's a choice.

"WebKit couldn't compete if it had to." #

Nobody frames it precisely this way; instead they'll say, if WebKit weren't mandated, Chromium would take over, or Google would dominate the web if not for the WebKit restriction. That potential future requires mechanisms of action — something to cause Safari users to switch. What are those mechanisms? And why are some commenters so sure the end is nigh for WebKit?

Recall the status quo: websites can already ask iOS users to download alternative browsers. Thanks to (belated) questioning by Congress, they can even be set as the user's default, ensuring a higher probability to generate search traffic and derive associated revenue. None of that hinges on browser engine choice; it's just marketing. At the level of commerce, Apple's capitulation on default browser choice is a big deal, but it falls short of true differentiation.

So, websites can already put up banners asking users to get different browsers, If WebKit is doomed, its failure must lie in other stars; e.g., that Safari's WebKit is inferior to Gecko and Blink.

But the quality and completeness of WebKit is entirely within Apple's control.

Past swings away from OS default browsers happened because alternatives offered new features, better performance, improved security, and good site compatibility. These are properties intrinsic to the engine, not just the badge on the bonnet. Marketing and distribution have a role, but in recent browser battles, better engines have powered market shifts.

To truly differentiate and win, competitors must be able to bring their own engines. The leads of OS incumbents are not insurmountable because browsers are commodities with relatively low switching costs. Better products tend to win, if allowed, and Apple knows it.

Apple's prohibition on iOS browser engine competition has drained the potential of browser choice to deliver improvements. Without the ability to differentiate on features, security, performance, privacy, and compatibility, what's to sell? A slightly different UI? That's meaningful, but identically feeble web features cap the potential of every iOS browser. Nobody can pull ahead, and no product can offer future-looking capabilities that might make the web a more attractive platform.

This is working as intended:

On OSes with proper browser competition, sites can recommend browsers with engines that cost less to support or unlock crucial capabilities. Major sites asking users to switch can be incredibly effective in aggregate. Standards support is sometimes offered as a solution, but it's best to think of it as a trailing indicator.^[1] Critical capabilities often arrive in just one engine to start with, and developers that need these features may have incentive to prompt users to switch.

Developers are reluctanct to do this, however; turning away users isn't a winning growth strategy, and prompting visitors to switch is passé.

Still, in extremis, missing features and the parade of showstopping bugs render some services impossible to deliver. In these cases, suggesting an alternative beats losing users entirely.

But what if there's no better alternative? This is the situation that Apple has engineered on iOS. Cui bono? — who benefits?

All iOS browsers present as Safari to developers. There's no point in recommending a better browser because none is available. The combined mass of all iOS browsing pegged to the trailing edge means that folks must support WebKit or decamp for Apple's App Store, where it hands out capabilities like candy, but at a shocking price.

iOS's mandated inadequacy has convinced some that when engine choice is possible, users will stampede of away from Safari. This would, in turn, cause developers to skimp on testing for Apple's engine, making it inevitable that browsers based on WebKit and other minority engines could not compete. Or so the theory goes.

But is it predestined?

Perhaps some users will switch, but browser market changes take a great deal of time, and Apple enjoys numerous defences.

To the extent that Apple wants to win developers and avoid losing users, it has plenty of time.

It took over five years for Chrome to earn majority share on Windows with a superior product, and there's no reason to think iOS browser share will move faster. Then there's the countervailing evidence from macOS, where Safari manages to do just fine.

Regulatory mandates about engine choice will also take more than a year to come into force, giving Apple plenty of time to respond and improve the competitiveness of its engine. And that's the lower bound.

Apple's pattern of malaicious compliance will likely postpone true choice even futher. As Apple fights tooth-and-nail to prevent alternative browser engines, it will try to create ambiguity about vendor's ability to ship their best products worldwide, potentially delaying high-cost investment in ports with uncertain market reach.

Cupertino may also try to create arduous processes that force vendors to individually challenge the lack of each API, one geography at a time. In the best case, time will still be lost to this sort of brinksmanship. This is time that Apple can use to improve WebKit and Safari to be properly competitive.

Why would developers recommend alternatives if Safari adds features, improves security, prioritises performance, and fumigates for showstopping bugs? Remember: developers don't want to prompt users to switch; they only do it under duress. The features and quality of Safari are squarely in Apple's control.

So, given that Apple has plenty of time to catch up, is it a rational business decision to invest enough to compete?

Browsers Are Big Business #

Browsers are both big business and industrial-scale engineering projects. Hundreds of folks are needed to implement and maintain a competitive browser with specialisations in nearly every area of computing. World-class experts in graphics, networking, cryptography, databases, language design, VM implementation, security, usability (particularly usable security), power management, compilers, fonts, high-performance layout, codecs, real-time media, audio and video pipelines, and per-OS specialisation are required. And then you need infrastructure; lots of it.

How much does all of this cost? A reasonable floor comes from Mozilla's annual reports. The latest consolidated financials (PDF) are from 2020 and show that, without marketing expenses, Mozilla spends between $380 and $430 million US per year on software development. Salaries are the largest category of these costs (~$180-210 million), and Mozilla economises by hiring remote employees paid local market rates, without large bonuses or stock-based compensation.

From this data, we can assume a baseline cost to build and maintain a competitive, cross-platform browser at $450 million per year.

Browser vendors fund their industrial-scale software engineering projects through integrations. Search engines pay browser makers for default placement within their products. They, in turn, make a lot of money because browsers send them transactional and commercial intent searches as part of the query stream.

Advertisers bid huge sums to place ads against keywords in these categories. This market, in turn, funds all the R&D and operational costs of search engines, including "traffic acquisition costs" like browser search default deals.^[2]

How much money are we talking about? Mozilla's $450 million in annual revenue comes from approximately 8% of the desktop market and negligible mobile share. Browsers are big, big business.

WebKit Is No Charity #

Despite being largely open source, browsers and their engines are not loss leaders.

Safari, in particular, is wildly profitable. The New York Times reported in late 2020 that Google now pays Apple between $8-12 billion per year to remain Safari's default search engine, up from $1 billion in 2014. Other estimates put the current payments in the $15 billion range. What does this almighty torrent of cash buy Google? Searches, preferably of the commercial intent sort.

Mobile accounts for two-thirds of web traffic (or thereabouts), making outsized iOS adoption among wealthy users particularly salient to publishers and advertisers. Google's payments to Apple are largely driven by the iPhone rather than its niche desktop products where effective browser competition has reduced the influence of Apple's defaults.

Even with Apple's somewhat higher salaries per engineer, the skeleton staffing of WebKit, combined with the easier task of supporting fewer platforms, suggests that Apple is unlikely to spend considerably more than Mozilla does on browser development. In 2014, Apple would have enjoyed a profit margin of 50% if it had spent half a billion on browser engineering. Today, that margin would be 94-97%, depending on which figure you believe for Google's payments.

In absolute terms, that's more profit than Apple makes selling Macs.

Compare Cupertino's 3-6% search revenue reinvestment in the web with Mozilla's near 100% commitment, then recall that Mozilla has consistently delivered a superior engine to more platforms. I don't know what's more embarrassing: that some folks argue with a straight face that Apple is trying hard to build a good browser, or that it is consistently overmatched in performance, security, and compatibility by a plucky non-profit foundation that makes just ~5% of Apple's web revenue.

Choices, Choices #

Steve Jobs launched Safari for Windows in the same WWDC keynote that unveiled the iPhone.

Commenters often fixate on the iPhone's original web-based pitch, but don't give Apple stick for reducing engine diversity by abandoning Windows three versions later.

Today, Apple doesn't compete outside its home turf, and when it has agency, it prevents others from doing so. These are not the actions of a firm that is consciously attempting to promote engine diversity. If Apple is an ally in that cause, it is only by accident.

Theories that postulate a takeover by Chromium dismiss Apple's power over a situation it created and recommits to annually through its budgeting process.

This is not a question of resources. Recall that Apple spends $85 billion per year on stock buybacks^[3], $15 billion on dividends, enjoys free cash flow larger than the annual budgets of 47 nations, and retain tens of billions of dollars of cash on hand.^[4] And that's to say nothing of Apple's $100+ billion in non-business-related long-term investments.

Even if Safari were a loss leader, Apple would be able to avoid producing a slower, stifled, less secure, famously buggy engine without breaking the bank.

Apple needs fewer staff to deliver equivalent features because Safari supports fewer OSes. The necessary investments are also R&D expenses that receive heavy tax advantages. Apple enjoys enviable discounts to produce a credible browser, but refuses to do so.

Unlike Microsoft's late and underpowered efforts with IE 7-11, Safari enjoys tolerable web compatibility, more than 90% share on a popular OS, and an unheard-of war chest with which to finance a defence. The postulated apocalypse seems far away and entirely within Apple's power to forestall.

Recent Developments #

One way to understand the voluntary nature of Safari's poor competitiveness is to put Cupertino's recent burst of effort in context.

When regulators and legislators began asking questions in 2019, a response was required. Following Congress' query about default browser choice, Apple quietly allowed it through iOS 14 (however ham-fistedly) the following year. This underscores Apple's gatekeeper status and the tiny scale of investment required to enable large changes.

In the past six months, the Safari team has gone on a veritable hiring spree. This month's WWDC announcements showcased returns on that investment. By spending more in response to regulatory pressure, Apple has eviscerated notions that it could not have delivered a safer, more capable, and competitive browser many years earlier.

Safari's incremental headcount allocation has been large compared to the previous size of the Safari team, but in terms of Apple's P&L, it's loose change. Predictably, hiring talent to catch up has come at no appreciable loss to profitability.

The competitive potential of any browser hinges on headcount, and Apple is not limited in its ability to hire engineering talent. Recent efforts demonstrate that Apple has been able to build a better browser all along and, year after year, chose not to.

How Apple Gutted Mozilla's Chances #

For over a dozen years, setting any browser other than Safari as the iOS default was impossible. This spotted Safari a massive market share head-start. Meanwhile, restrictions on engine choice continue to hamstring competitors, removing arguments for why users should switch. But don't take my word for it; here's the recent "UK CMA Final Report on Mobile Ecosystems" summarising submissions by Mozilla and others (pages 154-155):

5.48 The WebKit restriction also means that browser vendors that want to use Blink or Gecko on other operating systems have to build their browser on two different browser engines. Several browser vendors submitted that needing to code their browser for both WebKit and the browser engine they use on Android results in higher costs and features being deployed more slowly.

5.49 Two browser vendors submitted that they do not offer a mobile browser for iOS due to the lack of differentiation and the extra costs, while Mozilla told us that the WebKit restriction delayed its entrance into iOS by around seven years

That's seven years of marketing, feature iteration, and brand loyalty that Mozilla sacrificed on the principle that if they could not bring their core differentiator, there was no point.

It would have been better if Mozilla had made a ruckus, rather than hoping the world would notice its stoic virtue, but thankfully the T-rex has roused from its slumber.

Given the hard times the Mozilla Foundation has found itself in, it seems worth trying to quantify the costs.

To start, Mozilla must fund a separate team to re-develop features atop a less-capable runtime. Every feature that interacts with web content must be rebuilt in an ad-hoc way using inferior tools. Everything from form autofill to password management to content blocking requires extra resources to build for iOS. Not only does this tax development of the iOS product, it makes coordinated feature launches more costly across all ports.

Most substantially, iOS policies against default browser choice — combined with "in-app-browser" and search entry point shenanigans — have delayed and devalued browser choice.

Until late 2020, users needed to explicitly tap the Firefox icon on the home screen to get back to their browser. Naïvely tapping links would, instead, load content in Safari. This split experience causes a sort of pervasive forgetfulness, making the web less useful.

Continuous partial amnesia about browser-managed information is bad for users, but it hurts browser makers too. On OSes with functional competition, convincing a user to download a new browser has a chance of converting nearly all of their browsing to that product. iOS (along with Android and Facebook's mobile apps) undermine this by constantly splitting browsing, ignoring the user's default. When users don't end up in their browser, searches occur through it less often, affecting revenue. Web developers also experience this as a reduction in visible share of browsing from competing products, reducing incentives to support alternative engines.

A foregetful web also hurts publishers. Ad bid rates are suppressed, and users struggle to access pay-walled content when browsing is split. The conspicuious lack of re-engagement features like Push Notifications are the rotten cherry on top, forcing sites to push users to the App Store where Apple doesn't randomly log users out, or deprive publishers of key features.

Users, browser makers, web developers, and web businesses all lose. The hat-trick of value destruction.

Back Of The Napkin #

The pantomime of browser choice on iOS has created an anaemic, amnesiac web. Tapping links is more slogging than surfing when autofill fails, passwords are lost, and login state is forgotten. Browsers become less valuable as the web stops being a reliable way to complete tasks.

Can we quantify these losses?

Estimating lost business from user frustration and ad rate depression is challenging. But we can extrapolate what a dozen years of choice might have meant for Mozilla from what we know about how Apple monetises the web.

For the purposes of argument, let's assume Mozilla would be paid for web traffic at the same rate as Apple; $8-15 billion per year for ~75% share of traffic from Apple OSes.

If the traffic numbers to US government websites are reasonable proxies for the iOS/macOS traffic mix (big "if"s), then equal share for Firefox on iOS to macOS would be worth $215-400 million per year.^[5] Put differently; there's reason to think that Mozilla would not have suffered layoffs if Apple were an ally of engine choice.

Apple's policies have made the web a less compelling ecosystem, its anti-competitive behaviours drive up competitor's costs, and it simultaneously starves them of revenue by undermining browser choice.

If Apple is a friend of engine diversity, who needs enemies?

The Best Kind Of Correct #

There is a narrow, fetid sense in which Apple's influence is nominally pro-diversity. Having anchored a significant fraction of web traffic at the trailing edge, businesses that do not decamp for the App Store may feel obliged to support WebKit.

This is a malignant form of diversity, not unlike other lagging engines through the years that harmed users and web-based businesses by externalizing costs. But on OSes with true browser choice, alternatives were meaningful.

Consider the loathed memory of IE 6, a browser that overstayed its welcome by nearly a decade. For as bad as it was, folks could recommend alternatives. Plugins also allowed us to transparently upgrade the platform.

Before the rise of open-source engines, the end of one browser lineage may have been a deep loss to ecosystem diversity, but in the past 15 years, the primary way new engines emerge has been through forking and remixing.

But the fact of an engine being different does not make that difference valuable, and WebKit's differences are incremental. Sure, Blink now has a faster layout engine, better security, more features, and fewer bugs, but like WebKit, it is also derived from KHTML. Both engines are forks and owe many present-day traits to their ancestors.

Today's KHTML descendants are not the end of the story. Future forks are possible. New codebases can be built from parts. Indeed, there's already valuable cross-pollination in code between Gecko, WebKit, and Chromium. Unlike the '90s and early 2000s, diversity can arrive in valuable increments through forking and recombination.

What's necessary for leading edge diversity, however, is funding.

By simultaneously taking a massive pot of cash for browser-building off the table, returning the least it can to engine development, and preventing others from filling the gap, Apple has foundationally imperilled the web ecosystem by destroying the utility of a diverse population of browsers and engines.

Apple has agency. It is not a victim, and it is not defending engine diversity.

What Now? #

A better, brighter future for the web is possible, and thanks to belated movement by regulators, increasingly likely. The good folks over at Open Web Advocacy are leading the way, clearly explaining to anyone who will listen both what's at stake and what it will take to improve the situation.

Investigations are now underway worldwide, so if you think Apple shouldn't be afraid of a bit of competition if it will help the web thrive, consider getting involved. And if you're in the UK or do business there, consider helping the CMA help the web before July 22nd, 2022. The future isn't written yet, and we can change it for the better.