Android Options Mean "Best" Browsers Might Surprise You

An anonymous reader writes with this quote from Tom's Hardware: "Due to Apple's anti-3rd-party browser stance, and Windows RT's IE-only advantage on the 'Desktop,' Android is the only mobile platform where browser competition is thriving. The results are pretty surprising, with the long-time mobile browsers like Dolphin, Maxthon, Sleipnir, and the stock Android browser coming out ahead of desktop favorites like Firefox, Opera, and even Chrome. Dolphin, thanks to its new Jetpack HTML5 engine, soars ahead of the competition."

Comments

Hey, Apple has browser competition!

[crazyjj]

There are plenty of other Safari skins available!

But seriously, these walled gardens make me long for the 90's, when you could sanction a company for even *including* their own browser with an OS, much less outright forbidding other browsers from being installed.

Re:Hey, Apple has browser competition!

[kelemvor4]

They're all just skinned versions of safari. Apple's TOS forbid improving iOS.

Re:Hey, Apple has browser competition!

[TheViciousOverWind]

People keep spouting this like it's gospel, and it might be legally correct, but that doesn't make it any less crappy for the consumers. Apple is on the way to be a more evil version of Microsoft when it was worst, and I think the world would be a better place if they were forced to be slightly more open.

Re:Hey, Apple has browser competition!

[pauljlucas]

Apple's approach to deciding the market on its devices is anti-competitive behavior.

They're Apple's devices and should be allowed to do whatever they want with them. Don't like it? Don't buy one.

The difference with Microsoft is that they had a monopoly on virtually all other manufacturers' hardware since (at the time) they made no hardware of their own. Now that they make Surface, they should be allowed to do whatever they want with it. The market will decide its fate.

Re:Hey, Apple has browser competition!

[h4rr4r]

They are Apple's devices?
I thought they sold them to people, not leased them. Am I mistaken?

Re:Hey, Apple has browser competition!

[DJRumpy]

A monopoly is not illegal. If you abuse a monopoly, thats when it becomes a legal matter. Microsoft threatened vendors when they wanted to put other browsers on their OEM builds and that's what made it illegal. just bundling your own browser is not illegal. Threatening to kill a vendors access to the market dominant OS if they put a competitors browser on is definitely illegal.

Apple is not a monopoly, they are not doing anything illegal, and they can put whatever browser they choose on their devices. I agree with the parent. If you don't like it, don't buy it, and obviously many don't since Android is the dominant OS, no?

The market health seems fine to me.

Re:Just proving the point

[Desler]

The rest of us demand more control, more chaos, and more competition.

No, the vast majority of Android users are people buying it because the phones are cheap. Not because they care about being able to root the phone, install alternative browsers, or wanting "chaos". The XDA-like crowd is a pretty niche minority.

Re:Just proving the point

[ozmanjusri]

The XDA-like crowd is a pretty niche minority.

But the people who want a choice of screen sizes, durability, features, looks and yes, even cost are a real majority. The price and popularity of Samsung's Galaxy models should tell you that the "cheap Android" slur is just FUD.

Re:Just proving the point

[Desler]

But the people who want a choice of screen sizes, durability, features, looks and yes, even cost are a real majority.

No, the real majority just care about costs. I know this because I know people who work at the stores selling these phones. The people zoom in on what is the cheapest looking phone that looks the coolest. That's about it. They couldn't care about the resolutions, the CPUs cores, the amount of memory, etc.

The price and popularity of Samsung's Galaxy models should tell you that the "cheap Android" slur is just FUD.

And worldwide, those phones represent around 5% of all Android phones. If you look at the Android phones being sold in China, Africa, etc. they are not phones like the Galaxy models. They are basically phones that are just steps up from feature phones.

Re:Power, memory and bandwidth consumption matter

[h4rr4r]

So it is for your own good, since you are too stupid to make your own decisions?

What if I don't care about battery life? What if I really need a webpage to load correctly and not in a way safari does it?

If they want to set the defaults that is fine, but to prevent me from doing at all unless I use their one true way is why I will never buy and iOS device.

You are not their customer.

[goombah99]

If they want to set the defaults that is fine, but to prevent me from doing at all unless I use their one true way is why I will never buy and iOS device.

You are not their customer. So by all means roll your own.

Apple customers don't want the hassle of monitoring their major apps for good behaviour, reading TOMS hardware every 3 months and changing things. They do get upset if their battery is going down faster than apple said it would and they don't know what is causing it.

I'm a computer geek and I'm in that class. All I want out of my cell phone is very very high reliability, battery life and security. If I want to dink around and experiment on a mobile system I can buy an android phone or jail brake it. But for the one in my pocket, I want high usability with reliable behaviour, not jet packs.