Please point me to the halves of the web which are divided by Apple.

I see the confusion, that's not the web.

In all seriousness - which half of the new Google WEI divided web will you so confidently declare "That's not the web" for?

Because this is the half Apple broke off to sell as iOS apps. A domain that is entirely exclusive to apple, and requires all sorts of hoops to gain access to (including purchasing Apple specific hardware).

Further - they enforced that domain by strictly locking down down the capabilities of literally ANY browser a user might try to install on iOS. Because otherwise users might have chosen to use a progressive web app and Apple wouldn't get their fucking 30% store tax.

Easy, the part that doesn't work on Firefox.

The problem isn't that other clients exist, a company that wants to have complete control of the UI can make an App that ensures it, they can deep link into it - no problem.

The problem starts when the main platform used to consume the web starts having specialised features which make some websites work only on this one platform because the developers build specifically for this one platform.

And no, this is not the same for the AppStore because the AppStore is not the web. Apple controls a minority share of the market, its not universal and it's not supposed to be universal - its a an additional distribution channel of content to Apple specific devices.

So that's a website, but if you look at the URL, it's on the apple.com domain name. So that doesn't really count as "the web".

The "App Store" might look like a website to you but it's actually what we call a "native" app, which means that it's not a website at all but a computer program that runs on your iPhone if you have one.

The definition of WWW is that it consists of web resources being accessible over Internet via HTTP. Also the term URL is a core part of WWW conception.

Yes you are very right. The App Store is what Apple calls their way to put programs onto your iPhone. These programs however are not websites because you don't access them with your browser (like Safari or Chrome for example).

It's almost like there's two things here, and they do mostly the same thing, but someone... I don't know... "split" them.

Divided them, if you will. Made it so that there is a closed system of software that only users on certain "approved" hardware can access and use, and also locked those users into that system by preventing real competition.

I certainly am unable to see how that is entirely related to this conversation. It's a real puzzle to me...

I think you're not being serious, but I can see what you're trying to say. I don't think I agree because if you don't have an iPhone like my mum does, you can still do everything on internet. You can look up recipes and do all sorts of work. To her it's not really divided because everything already works. Apple hasn't done her any harm.

Oh fuck, really?

Gosh, I'm so silly. I hardly even noticed that the web is also a distribution platform for perfectly acceptable applications. They come with their own code and logo and everything! They even... wait for it... run locally on your iPhone if you have one!

Except they don't do it so well on iPhones - because Apple refused to implement or support a bunch of features that might have threatened their revenue on their app store. Which is fine, but then... they also stopped ANY other developers on the planet for being able to do that work on their platform.

They sure are nice fellas, those Apple folks.

Did I mention their app store is also an internet site? Literally. It has to be. Apple did a shit job making the HTML view, but the whole fucking shebang of a platform is delivering content to users over... the internet. Through a website.

They just locked the UI their users see for that content down to something they call "an iOS app" which is really code for "We turned your general purpose computer into a less general purpose computer for you!"

Which... is exactly the same fucking thing Google is doing now. Making my general purpose computer less general.

I don't feel like you're being nice.

Read it assuming the blatant sarcasm and cynicism are meant to be helpful "fun facts" and it reads like the author is being mean to themself. Text is there to let you accidentally intentionally misinterpret things due to the lack of intonation that comes with speech.