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Test that showed Android browser faster than iPhone Safari was flawed
Apple has lashed out at Blaze Software, the company behind the test, saying: "Their testing is flawed. They didn't actually test the Safari browser on the iPhone. Instead they only tested their own proprietary app, which uses an embedded Web viewer that doesn't actually take advantage of Safari's Web performance optimizations."
Blaze has updated its website in response to Apple's rebuttal, kind of admitting it made a mistake, but also attacking Apple for crippling iOS's embedded Web viewer.
There's another, more nefarious, story at play, though. With iOS 4.3, Apple shipped a new version of Mobile Safari, which thanks to Nitro JavaScript and asynchronous rendering should be very fast indeed. Apple didn't update the embedded Web viewer that iOS Web apps use, however. The result is that while websites are very snappy, Web apps that you launch from the home screen are sluggish.
By not updating the embedded Web viewer, developers are claiming that Apple is intentionally stymying the performance -- and thus adoption -- of Web apps on the iOS platform. It could simply be that Apple didn't get around to updating the embedded Web viewer in time for iOS 4.3's release, though.
Comments
5
Subscribe to commentsInsomnihackMar 18th 2011 8:52PM
I can't beleive they wasted 45,000 page views on a test that ended up being utter bullshit.
After reading the huge performance gains with Safari on 4.3 at Anandtech and ArsTechnica I knew this had to be flawed. It sounded like attention grabbing nonsense and that's exactly what it ended up being. What little credibility Blaze held has now been entirely lost. How could they be this stupid?
MxxConMar 19th 2011 1:40AM
@Insomnihack how can you be so stupid to fall for Apple's misdirection?!
The fact that this "nitro" optimization works only Safari is a huge problem.
That means that EVERY SINGLE APPLICATION that does anything with HTML or HTTP uses that embedded crippled webkit engine!
And even if Apple fixed this huge problem, "nitro"'s performance improvements are not enough for iOS to catchup to Android.
Here's the video of CTO of Blaze explaining in detail the methodology behind their tests
http://www.youtube.com/user/sdickert?feature=mhsn#p/u/8/9tas5j_kvSA
John DMar 18th 2011 9:04AM
The fact that the embedded viewer doesn't recieve the same performance enhancements as full-on Safari smells pretty bad. Since web apps = no (direct) revenue and given Apple's track record of a level of contempt for developers, I'd say the argument that it is intentional gets a bit more credible.
RMNMar 18th 2011 9:07AM
Steve Jobs wins again.
DaveMar 18th 2011 10:31AM
I wouldn't say this was "lies and slander".
Apple should of updated both the engines. Sure, it means that apple isn't as far behind as originally thought, but the study still has truth to it.