Apple won’t let them! Not yet anyways. Antitrust issues may eventually force Apple’s hand and allow iOS apps to use alternate browsers such as Chrome (and some would say that they aren’t really alternate browsers anyway because they all use the same…

Also, the way how browsers render the page seems to be different across those third party “browsers”, for example Grazing still uses the “checkerboard”, iCab seems to go full throttle and lags a bit on the original iPad, while Mercury performs relatively well, quite like Safari.
I’m not quite familiar with iOS programming, but I thought they’re all using some UIWebView-thingy?

What’s with all that differences? Thx again.

Just do it right: it you need to distinguish between different web engines, talk about webkit of chrome version x, webkit of chrome version y, webkit of safari version z etc. then you can let a browser a browser and don’t need to confuse people with pseudo oddities ;-)

I’m just saying that everyone has a different meaning, so semantics are a BIG problem today in the mobile web world. I’m pretty sure you believe that there is only one answer to those questions but I can assure you that no.

Developers and designers cares about browsers.

Therefore yes, I’m writing a new dictionary. I’m starting with pseudo-browser, you can like it or not. I’m not the owner of the truth, I’m just publishing my point of view. Take it or leave it.

1) It’s clear that Yahoo! didn’t want to create a “browser”. That’s why on desktop it’s just a plugin. On mobile, no plugin architecture. Call it however you want, but for me clearly there is a big difference between real browsers and these apps.

2) It’s not just the rendering engine, you have also the execution engine, network protocols availability and configuration and other stuff around.

3) The well-known list of rendering engines in the web community is: WebKit, Gecko, Trident, Presto. The mobile web browsing market today has 75% of WebKit-based browsers. If you believe that then mobile web it’s easy because you have only one rendering engine to test on, you are wrong and you’ll have lots of problems. Just compare Safari on iOS with Android Browser. The differences with the same rendering engine are huge.

4) Safari on iOS, Android Browser, webOS Browser, BlackBerry Browser, Google Chrome, Nokia Browser, Bada Browser and Tizen Browser are WebKit-based, same rendering engine, and they are all DIFFERENT. Some browser had even different execution engines (JS). From a developer’s point of view, they are different browsers. When I’m saying different, I’m not just talking about the UI.

5) Axis!, SkyFire, Dolphin, iCab are not just using the same rendering engine. It’s a very different scenario. They are exactly the same. Again, the iPad with a keyboard accessory it’s not a new iPad. It’s the same developer’s platform, the Web View. They need to be in a different level.

So yes, I will re-invent and redeclare the language and semantics because we don’t have one yet unfortunately. Thinking that the mobile space is the same as desktop it’s a big mistake and leads only to problemas on the development side.

We do have lots of browsers in the mobile space (around 40) but Axis is not on that list. Axis and company are counting as only one web platform.

I’m just trying to make communication easier and let anyone understand what’s going on really. I prefer to exaggerate with definitions and not confuse developers that I found on Twitter complaining that with Axis now we have more fragmentation on the mobile web world. Well, clearly not.

Clearly when you talk about “browser” you are not meaning a browser, but only a small internal component of it (like when talking about cars, you are meaning it’s motor, when talking about computers, you mean the processor, when talking about a human being, your talking about the brain etc.).

I don’t understand why you don’t just talk about web engines? Everybody has a clear understanding about what a browser is: an application that lets you visit web pages, save them, bookmark them, download stuff from the Internet etc. why do you need to change this meaning. You even don’t have a proper name for the thing anymore, all of the rest of the world calls “browser”. You have to call it pseudo browser. But you can’t explain why Safari is not a pseudo browser as well. Why is iCab on the iOS a pseudo browser in your point of view, even though it has added the webkit engine with (at least) one new feature (file uploads), but chrome is not a pseudo browser, but it also uses webkit like safari and also has a few other features?

This all does not make sense, especially if you want to approach the topic as developer. As a develer you know that the web engine is the component you need to deal with, so name it.
Please do not re-invent and redeclare the language and semantics. This makes communication a lot of harder.