Re:Apple reverses course on death of Progressive Web Apps in EU
by mthoms on Monday March 04, 2024 @11:55AM
(#39592636)
The claim I addressed was "Firefox has never reversed a browser monopoly" (paraphrased - the original comment had much more derision and snark).
Obviously the person who made this comment was unaware of Firefox single handedly kickstarting the new browser wars (and the removal of IE as the only option).
I made no comment about what came later.
Re:Apple reverses course on death of Progressive Web Apps in EU
by ascagnel_ on Monday March 04, 2024 @01:44PM
(#39594237)
I still think it's a bit of a reach to say that Firefox "reversed a browser monopoly" -- while 30% was significant, MSIE remained utterly dominant until Chrome hit the market, especially once Google started pushing the browser via their various properties.
Re:Apple reverses course on death of Progressive Web Apps in EU
by mthoms on Monday March 04, 2024 @06:07PM
(#39597381)
Well, you're wrong. A monopoly is when there are no viable alternatives. "Mono" meaning "one".
Firefox presented not only a viable alternative, but was a demonstrably better browser. According to this site [0] Firefox peaked at 47.5% (vs IE 40.2%).
That is reversing a browser monopoly. Period.
[0] https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/the-rise-and-fall-of-pop...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_wars#/media/File:Bro...
This later graph (from the same Wiki article) covers 2009-2022, and is much more telling: once Chrome launches, it overtakes Firefox in two years, and then IE in another year. By the time Firefox manages to overtake IE, it’s fighting for third and has only ~15% market share.
Today, Chrome has ~66% market share, and it’s somewhat clear that the remaining 34% of non-Chrome traffic is mostly iOS/Safari. Apple is absolutely being anti-competitive, but that anti-competitive position is the only thing blocking Google from taking control of client and forcing a browser monoculture.