Apple’s vicious conspiracy: Killing the web technology, putting its platform to the top

The programming language used to build the web is also often reused on applications. That’s largely because the software allows developers to reuse the code they write to the browser, in products they build to run on operating systems such as Linux, Android, Windows, and macOS.

But Apple has a reason not to like recycling this web technology. It wants its Mac App Store to be filled with applications that users cannot find anywhere else, not the kind of applications available on all platforms. With a recent policy change, the company has made it a bit harder for developers to submit applications that contain web-based code.

Specifically, the Mac App Store began quietly rejecting applications created with a popular tool called Electron. This is a tool that allows developers to create application products based on code written for the browser. Some of the most popular apps in the App Store like Slack, Spotify, Discord and WhatsApp, fall into this category.

Users may not feel Apple’s monopoly in business.

In a discussion of the developer community on Github, some developers said that Apple’s move was to restrict applications from using their own APIs. Because the API itself can be changed or attacked by hackers over time, something Apple doesn’t want.

Of course, Electron has used these native APIs for years without problems. These separate APIs allow developers to significantly improve energy use, while tools from Apple make the user experience worse. And in the majority of these cases, Apple does not offer real alternatives.

Now, thousands of developers who have built their applications using Electron may have trouble releasing new updates. Unless Electron itself releases an update with major changes to align with Apple’s policy.

Another situational measure is that developers can distribute their apps from their own websites, requiring users to download them directly. But that means giving up features like Apple’s automatic update mechanism from the Mac App Store and iCloud syncing. And this method of direct download may also be locked soon, from Apple.

Apple has, over the course of its history, many times constrained the process of bringing web technology to its platforms. On iOS, Apple does not allow completely independent third-party browsers, but requires all applications to take advantage of the Safari browser when displaying web-based content. While other browsers like Chrome and Opera are available on Apple, they still have to use Apple’s Safari browser to display web pages, instead of doing it themselves. That means Apple has monopoly on how iPhone and iPad users access the web. To push developers toward building native apps on iOS instead of using browser-based technologies, Apple ignored the common features of web browsers. All for the sake of the company itself.

For example, a technology called WebRTC allows video calls in the web browser without additional software. It supports tools like Google Meet. But Apple has been extremely slow to roll out specifications, leaving out major functional parts that make the technology inoperable when embedded in applications.

Apple has also disabled an emerging standard, called Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) – like Electron, which allows developers to build the same applications on desktop and mobile devices. Dynamic – by performing operations that make it no longer suitable. PWA does not have a problem if the user opens the application in Chrome or Firefox, but iPhone and iPad users cannot install third-party browsers, which causes the PWA-based technology to not start.

Apple recently launched a tool called Catalyst. It allows iPad app developers to quickly bring them to macOS. This is a great tool for developers meant to target Apple users, but not a tool that supports cross-platform building applications.

Sometimes developers have no choice but to follow Apple’s rules.

Cleverly, Apple’s competitive activities are very subtle, skillful, creating a sense of not much influence but when combined together, they create a fairly clear business strategy. Like a cat and mouse game, the company is designing a system framework to control the applications that can run on its platform.

And apparently, the developers don’t have a voice here. Because Apple controls the platform, browser tools, and distribution methods. And in a sense, they are like a kind of exclusive competitive advantage and lawmakers have not been able to think of appropriate management standards or regulations yet. There is simply no way to get rid of these restrictions when Apple has control over everything in its own platform.

Refer to Medium