# How competing browsers and Progressive Web Apps could challenge mobile app stores

DevFeed: [How competing browsers and Progressive Web Apps could challenge mobile app stores](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/why-are-tech-reporters-sleeping-on-the-biggest-app-store-story-26540.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://infrequently.org/2024/01/the-web-is-the-app-store/>)

Author: Alex Russell

Published: 2024-01-01T00:00:00Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Alex Russell](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/alex-russell.md>)

Topics: [Mobile](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/mobile.md>), [Web app](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/webapp.md>), [browsers](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/browsers.md>), [Web](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/web.md>)

Tags: [apis](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/apis.md>), [app-store](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/app-store.md>), [apple](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/apple.md>), [apps](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/apps.md>), [browsers](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/browsers.md>), [competition](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/competition.md>), [google](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/google.md>), [mobile](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/mobile.md>), [pwa](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/pwa.md>), [web-app](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/web-app.md>), [web-apps](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/web-apps.md>)

## AI overview

The article argues that regulatory pressure opening mobile ecosystems to competing browsers could enable Progressive Web Apps to become an alternative to native app stores. It says browser access to essential APIs, app portability, and web-based discovery could weaken Apple and Google's control over mobile distribution.

## Source excerpt

The tech news is chockablock1 with antitrust rumblings and slow-motion happenings. Eagle-eyed press coverage, regulatory reports, and legal discovery have comprehensively documented the shady dealings of Apple and Google's app stores. Pressure for change has built to an unsustainable level. Something's gotta give. This is the backdrop to the biggest app store story nobody is writing about: on pain of steep fines, gatekeepers are opening up to competing browsers. This, in turn, will enable competitors to replace app stores with directories of Progressive Web Apps. Capable browsers that expose web app installation and powerful features to developers can kickstart app portability, breaking open the mobile duopoly. But you'd never know it reading Wired or The Verge. Contents The Buried Lede Disruption Disrupted Green Shoots A New Hope With shockingly few exceptions, coverage of app store regulation assumes the answer to crummy, extractive native app stores is other native app stores. This unexamined framing shapes hundreds of pieces covering regulatory events, including by web-friendly authors. The tech press almost universally fails to mention the web as a substitute for native apps and fail to inform readers of its potential to disrupt app stores. As Cory Doctorow observed: "An app is just a web-page wrapped in enough IP to make it a crime to defend yourself against corporate predation." The implication is clear: browsers unchained can do to mobile what the web did to desktop, where more than 70% of daily "jobs to be done" happen on the web. Replacing mobile app stores will look different than the web's path to desktop centrality, but the enablers are waiting in the wings. It has gone largely unreported that Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) have been held back by Apple and Google denying competing browsers access to essential APIs.2 Thankfully, regulators haven't been waiting on the press to explain the situation. Recent interventions into mobile ecosystems include require