Looking back on the past 2 weeks of publicity and limited response from Apple I applaud this move, getting a second browser to the iPhone. It was certainly the right choice and I don’t believe it has anything to do with the Flash frenzy that is still simmering.
Opera took on considerable financial risk in building this App with no guarantee of “App Store Approval”. They played by the rules and delivered an App built on the iPhone APIs and while it obviously competes with Safari… all devices need more than 1 browser otherwise the consumer is at substantial risk and as reported this week that risk is starting to include exposure of privacy for ransom dough.
Personally, I think if IE or Google want to come to the table with a product built on the APIs then it ought to be approved. What kind of belly aching would we be hearing from Apple and the community if Microsoft issued an OS update that essentially killed Safari on any MS based OS and furthermore, prevented it from installation. Or how about QuickTime, what if that product were suddenly not supported on an MS OS, what if Google Chrome OS decides the same?
The consumer is at risk on any single web browser device for ever increasing security reasons. Many times a zero day hack hits the internet and the Browser is the attack vector. It happens, the German Government recently warned web users against using IE. So think about that for a minute, if you’re stuck with a single browser device because the manufacturer doesn’t want to open it for competition then you can suddenly find yourself stuck in a corner without an option to launch an alternative browser when a zero day hits. As a consumer, that is never going to be in your best interest.
Safari on the iPhone was hacked on day 1 at Pwn2Own, that warrants multiple browsers. The nature of the iPhone hack was one that we hear of daily. Visit an unsafe web site with an unpatched browser and evil malware quietly installs on your computer or mobile device. Guess what happens? In this particular instance the hackers were able to ship a copy of the local SMS database to another server. In the real world this information could then be sold to the highest bidder or back to you for a fee.