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Comment by dsr_ | Hacker News Reader

> Nor is there a requirement for browser selection on OSX, iOS, Linux distros, Android, or ChromeOS (imagine if that were the case...). In fact, the majority of those platforms require you to use the built-in browser

Erm. iOS and ChromeOS require you to use the built in browser. In the Chrome case, there's a reasonable reason for that. None of the others you mention have that.

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You are not required to user either browser, and for example you can easily set the default browser on Android to Firefox.

On iOS you must use the system provided webkit as other apps aren't allowed to download and execute code. Alternate browsers do exist, but these are based on UIWebView and don't perform as well as Safari.

iOS, ChromeOS, Windows RT, and Windows Phone all require you to use the default browser. I mentioned the Windows platforms in the prior sentence, the two Windows platforms not affected by this ruling.

Actually this is not true on windows phone 8 and windows RT. The only requirement is that you use the native API which means the browser back end will need to be ported to it.

This may be or may not be hard work.

iOS requires you to have the built-in browser installed; they don't require you to use it. (You can download and install Chrome for iOS, but you can never remove Safari.)

Still, this isn't a monopolistic concern until iOS has a monopoly. iOS's marketshare is nowhere near Windows' was when the anti-trust regulations were enacted.

In addition, Apple isn't using it's monopolistic control of one market to illegally gain share in another. Nor is Google.

Chrome on iOS uses the Safari back-end. Only the GUI is different. Apple will not let you install a completely new browser on iOS.

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