I hadn't seen that before, thanks for sharing. First question: "Does Apple permit iPhone users to uninstall Safari? If yes, please describe the steps a user would need to take in order to do so. If no, please explain why not"

Apple answers that users cannot, and adds:

"The App Store provides Apple’s users with access to third party apps, including web browsers. Browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge and others are available for users to download"

While forgetting to mention that all "Apple's policies require all iOS apps that browse the web to use the iOS built-in iOS WebKit-based rendering framework and WebKit JavaScript" [https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/], effectively meaning it's just a skin on top of WebKit, which is controlled by Apple.

I wish something good comes out of that investigation, but realistically, I don't see it happening.

Seems like a straightforward retread of U.S. v. Microsoft.

1. Can you delete Safari on iOS?

No, but the "App Store provides Apple’s users with access to third party apps, including web browsers."

2. Can you set a third-party browser as the default browser?

No.

3. How about for opening links in bundled apps?

No, see questions 1 and 2.

4. Okay, so can these third-party browsers include their own rendering engine?

No, because "Apple can provide security updates to all our users quickly and accurately, no matter which browser they decide to download from the App Store."

5. What if a third-party browser introduced better security/privacy features?

See question 4 and it's "not our experience that competing web browsers have typically offered enhanced privacy or security that would protect users as adequately as our WebKit protections."

6. What features does Apple cut off to third-party browsers?

  * WebRTC
  * Service Workers
  * Intelligent Tracking Protection
  * Fullscreen API

You may be interested in the comments from when this was first posted here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21587191