So what? Controlling how many fart apps are available on its platform does not make Apple a gatekeeper to any part of the Internet. Apple does not funnel Web traffic into its properties.
Think it through: Amazon dominates shopping-search results. It easily swamps any other shopping portal or indie vendor. So it is a de facto gatekeeper to a huge portion of online shopping. You're citing Apple's alleged 58% of phone-platform share as making it a gatekeeper to the Internet? Amazon is actually an Internet-based entity with huge dominance in its field.
Meanwhile Meta (Facebook) IS the Internet for a large (less tech-savvy) portion of the public. Akin to when AOL slapped Internet access onto its platform.
Apple controls its app store. Is it douchey as hell to developers? Yep. Has it antagonized governments and flouted legal rulings? Yep. Has it lied about App Store search? Yep.
But it is not an Internet gatekeeper or a monopoly.
The Internet and the Web are not the same thing. Apple absolutely gatekeeps the ability to run non-HTTP internet connected apps. Your statement that Apple is not a “gatekeeper to any part of the Internet” is simply false.
> So what? Controlling how many fart apps are available on its platform does not make Apple a gatekeeper to any part of the Internet.
Controlling what kind of software, including _web browsers_, runs on the main device for the majority of the US population, does not make it a gatekeeper? That doesn't make any sense to me. Want to go to Amazon? You need an app or a browser to access it, both of these are controlled by Apple on its devices. Meta/Facebook? Same.
No, it does not. Does the cable company's forcing of you to use DOCSIS-compliant modems control what Web sites you access? No.
Does WebKit direct you to certain sites or block sites based on their content? Does it capture your search terms and curate the results? Does it aggregate content? Does it funnel your viewing to certain sites preferentially? No.
You keep attempting to assert that the viewing tool curates what you view with it. WebKit doesn't. Even if you raise technical points (doesn't support Web MIDI or something), those still don't prevent you from visiting any site you want. Even if a site were totally broken for technical reasons, it doesn't amount to deliberate curation by Apple.
Webkit does limit the sites I can visit, or equivalently the technologies that websites can use, because it doesn't support them. Which is _fine_ for a web browser, if it wasn't the case that Apple effectively used to mandate all web browsers on iOS to use Webkit.
Which is also the only allowed way to run software on 58% of US smartphones?
> Unlike Google, Meta, and Amazon
I could agree with Google, but how are Meta and Amazon gatekeepers of the internet? Especially _more than Apple_