Apple fulfilled this wish of Steve Jobs 16 years later. Web applications will be almost like real ones

The recent update to Apple’s search engine has pleased users and others alike. Many useful features can already be tested on your device, and we will see profit from a couple of technical applications in the near future.

Steve Jobs probably remembered one of the main ideas for iOS.

Cupertino did not come up with an App Store for the iPhone

In the future, the plans did not include the creation of a built-in store for applications and games for the closed iOS system. This was due to the need to use and the safety of the smartphone.

At the presentation of the very first iPhone Steve Jobs proudly spoke about the set of standard programs for iOS and especially noted that third-party developers release web applications for smartphones. To do this, we even preliminary considered the possibility of displaying shortcuts to web programs on the desktop, similar to stock applications.

Attention, review and discussion of iPhone features.

At the summer presentation WWDC 2007when the iPhone was just over two weeks away, Jobs once again drew attention to the problem and offered to create cool programs for the mobile phone. Safari.

Steve’s way of running applications on threads is innovative. Perhaps they were limited only by the framework, and its development at Apple could not help but be stingy.

Safari already then had access to geolocation, a GSM module, could access the implementation of data types and had public security standards. At the same time, all applications were launched in a secure sandbox, which is why they could not harm the gadget or user data.

Developers do not need to learn separate SDKs to write web apps for iPhone. However, as often happened with Jobs’ ideas, they were ahead of their time and could not be fully implemented at the current level of technology development.

Over the next year, over 1,000 iPhone web apps were created, including major banking, shipping, and mapping services, and the Cupertinos backed down under pressure. Enthusiasts have already produced quite functional analogues, for example, InstallerApp from restrictions from Russia, and users happily discussed Apple’s restrictions and expanded the capabilities of the iPhone.

A year later, the company changed its mind, at the next presentation of mobile application development tools for its own smartphone. Software and game developers could easily sell their products to users, launched a simple and understandable platform – App Store by analogy with iTunes for music. Well, do not forget to set your percentage of perfect achievements.

In this form, the system lasted more than 15 years. On the one hand, no one forbids developers to release web applications, but on the other hand, everyone wanted to get rich by launching another hit on the App Store new donation dump.

What has prevented web application developers all these years

There were three main reasons why it was assumed that Jobs could not be realized during the early iPhones.

1. Mobile Internet was underdeveloped. The speed of access to the World Wide Web via mobile networks was quite low even in European countries, and the coverage left a lot of white spots even in a large number of crowds.

Relying on web applications that are entirely connected to the network in such situations was very risky. The traffic was very expensive and everyone finds out as soon as possible in the place of the alleged Wi-Fi point of view. Even the number of connected mobile tariffs with low traffic was much inferior to plans with minutes of communication and SMS messages.

2. Web development options were limited. The Hypertext Markup Language HTML causes active development and formation. The consortium that developed the standard The World Wide Webjust tidy up the code and embed the stylesheet css.

Browsers could already run the code JavaScript, but there were not yet enough libraries and frameworks to work with it. In other words, creating, for example, a good or functional photo editor game was an extremely difficult task.

3. Developers have not yet paid attention to mobile platforms. This was a consequence of both numerous problems and a large number of desktop browsers. No one wanted to bother creating and using a mobile version of the site for a small niche of enthusiasts with smartphones.

Most Internet users consume content on monitors and the entire industry has become under their control.

These problems don’t happen often, web apps on small smartphone screens. A separate application was written faster and easier at that time, which would not depend on the network connection settings and operation algorithms.

Now web applications are ready to compete with the App Store

Adding the web version of the Sber client to the desktop

Web development, like the iPhone itself, has come a long way. New technologies have appeared, gas creators have paid attention to this promising niche.

Under the current conditions, it has become faster and easier to create a web version of your service and at the same time use it for users on different platforms. No need to get code for new versions of the OS, wait weeks for approval from App Store moderators and give a commission to Cupertinos in the case of paid services and chips.

Soon there were a lot of interesting options in the recent iOS 16.4 update.

After adding the web version of Telegram, a separate settings section works

◈ Web applications have learned how to send push notifications. This means that the browser version of the messenger Telegram is almost as good as an individual client. You can easily use the web clients of remote banking applications, the environment should not have dance packages with a tambourine to download programs from external sources.

So far, unfortunately, everything is not so rosy. Developers must “finish” their web applications on their own and integrate the ability to send a console. And it is also necessary to trace how the Apple mobile OS will be conducted with background processes in the browser, how stable the connection to the network, background updating and being in the device’s RAM will be.

New ability to add applications to the desktop in the browser from Yandex

◈ You can add web applications to your desktop from external browsers. A small innovation will come in handy for fans of other browsers other than Safari pages. use limit and general result for all results on iOS, this may be an unnecessary search. On the other hand, for example, from Yandex already contains a root certificate Mintsifryfor launch by customers of Russian banks, its not a manual snack and consumption on the device.

One of the new options was announced at WWDC 2022 last summer, and the second was quietly visited as a bonus.

Web apps and third-party stores will beat the App Store

Web version of Telegram, Tinkoff and Sprut.Hub

In the near future, we are waiting for an interesting stage in the development of the iOS mobile platform. For several years now, European parliamentarians have been putting pressure on Cupertinites in order to open the operating system for external stores and marketplaces.

Sooner or later, we have experienced the experience of using programs and games bypassing the App Store, and all this time, developers will use their web programs.

Already, a banking client is being developed for Safari, which can perform up to 95% of the application’s use cases. Browser games and streaming services are getting unlimited entertainment, and new iOS web app features all but solve the problem of apps that have been removed over the past year.

The part includes third-party employees bypass Apple’s severe censorship of moderators and are captured from the “tax” takeover of the App Store. This should encourage creators to spread more ideas.

In just a few years, our beloved iOS will no longer be the same, and the iPhone experience will not be built around the Apple Store. The system is one step closer to the idea and ideals of Jobs.

We love technology and mobile gadgets, in any case we will win.