Microsoft Prototype Shows Blink on iOS Outperforms Safari by 30%
The benchmark results quantify the performance gap Apple's WebKit-only policy imposes on iOS browsers, and the lack of real-world alternatives two years after the EU opened the door suggests Apple's BrowserEngineKit remains a practical barrier.
Reporting from 1 sources: GIGAZINE.
Microsoft's Edge Web Platform team built a Blink-based Chromium browser prototype for iOS using Apple's BrowserEngineKit. In benchmark tests on an iPhone running iOS 26.5.1, the prototype outperformed Safari by 28.6% in Speedometer 3.1, 13.1% in JetStream 3, and 2.1% in MotionMark 1.3.1. Despite the EU's Digital Markets Act allowing alternative engines since March 2024, no major browser has shipped its own engine on iOS, citing technical issues and implementation burdens.
Microsoft's Edge Web Platform team published benchmark results from a Blink-based Chromium browser prototype running on iOS, showing a performance lead over Safari of roughly 30% in some metrics. Group Product Manager Kyle Pflug used Apple's BrowserEngineKit to create the research prototype and tested it on an iPhone running iOS 26.5.1. The largest gap appeared in Speedometer 3.1, where the Blink prototype scored 49.27 against Safari's 38.3, a 28.6% difference. JetStream 3 showed a 13.1% advantage, and MotionMark 1.3.1 a 2.1% edge.
Apple has required all iOS browsers to use WebKit for years, meaning Chrome and Firefox on iPhone run WebKit, not their own engines. The EU's Digital Markets Act forced Apple to allow alternative engines through BrowserEngineKit starting March 2024, but no major browser has shipped its own engine on iOS since then. Google and Mozilla are reportedly prototyping Blink- and Gecko-based browsers for iOS, but none have been released publicly. Pflug noted that BrowserEngineKit still has bugs and technical issues that make implementation burdensome. Microsoft would also need to offer a Blink-based Edge as a separate app, not an update to the existing WebKit-based Edge, requiring it to rebuild its iOS user base.
Alex Moore, Executive Director of Open Web Advocacy, criticized Apple's long-standing restriction, arguing that the barriers set by Apple continue to prevent browser vendors from porting their engines to iOS. Moore said the European Commission should begin a procedure to specifically instruct Apple on which barriers to remove and how, and argued that restricting browser engines limits what the mobile web can do, keeping companies dependent on native apps and App Store rules.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.