A second browser manufacturer is happy about the selection dialog for standard browsers that has been enforced in Europe: The number of new users has more than doubled after the introduction of the new dialog in Safari with iOS 17.4, as Opera has now announced. According to the manufacturer, there has been a jump in growth in Apple's operating system in particular – but new users have also been added to Android. This underlines how important regulation is for “level playing field” and that users are “hungry” for new browsers.
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Opera reports massive user growth
In individual countries such as France, the number of new Opera users on iPhones increased by over 400 percent from March 5th to 7th, and in Germany by over 50 percent. However, Opera kept to itself what specific download numbers the increase was based on, so the information is not very meaningful. The competing browser manufacturer Brave had previously reported an increase from almost 8,000 downloads per day to almost 11,000 downloads, an increase of less than 40 percent.
In order to meet one of the requirements of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), Apple's pre-installed Safari browser displays the selection dialog when opening it for the first time after installing iOS 17.4. Users can then directly select one of the twelve copies listed, download it and at the same time set it as the default browser. Apple shows a randomly sorted list that, in addition to Safari, also shows eleven of the most downloaded browsers in the respective country in the previous year.
Criticism of hidden iOS browser settings
Developers criticized at a DMA workshop on Monday that Apple is still making it too difficult to change the default browser. The corresponding setting is deeply hidden in iOS and Safari also hides it as long as the browser itself is set as the default. iOS users have been able to change the default browser for a long time, but there are currently no real alternatives because everyone in the substructure has to rely on Apple's WebKit engine. This is now also changing due to the new EU rules.
(lbe)