If Google forced alternative browser engines off the play store, the EU would jump all over them.
Apple gets to break all the rules Microsoft and Google get dinged for, because they are vertically integrated. It feels like a bug in the law that corporations are incentivized to take everything in house. Somehow being a bigger, more powerful company makes you less vulnerable to anti-trust laws.
No, everyone who’s a registered developer knew they couldn’t use a different browser engine. That’s been the policy from day 1.
It would be different if Apple allowed 3rd party rendering engines and then forced them off, but that’s not the case.
Among other things, 3rd party engines would be incompatible with Apple’s Lockdown feature. Because browsers are required to use WebKit on iOS, they automatically work with lockdown mode; it would be much more difficult if every browser on iOS had it’s own rendering and JavaScript engine:
On a more technical level, a number of web technologies are turned off,
including just-in-time (JIT) JavaScript compilation (where code is run
and compiled at the same time.) In addition, configuration profiles
(for work or school for example) can't be installed.
Apple gets to break all the rules Microsoft and Google get dinged for, because they are vertically integrated. It feels like a bug in the law that corporations are incentivized to take everything in house. Somehow being a bigger, more powerful company makes you less vulnerable to anti-trust laws.