Mozilla lashes out at Microsoft, Google and Apple for using their systems to encourage the use of their browsers 

Recently the news broke that Mozilla, has made a criticism found of Microsoft, Google and Apple for using their operating systems to direct users to their browsers and hinder rivals who do not have the same operating system benefits. Like, for example, Mozilla.

The fact that these few large companies dominate a technology market so big (Mozilla refers to browsers and browser engines as the heart of the web) has a monopolistic domino effect that leaves users little choice, leads to a decline in innovation, a lack of openness, and low-quality, insecure code being forced on Internet users, the developer of Firefox concluded in a recent report.

Researchers of Mozilla wrote that they wanted to know how users interact Internet with browsers and how OS vendors stifle competitors and stifle innovation.

Suffice it to say that Firefox, once considered cool and popular, is no longer exactly what it once was. On desktop, it has a market share of around 7%, compared to Chrome's 67%, and on mobile, it barely counts, according to StatCounter.

Mozilla has published new research about how consumers in different countries and continents install and use browsers. Study shows the importance of web browsers for consumers, as the vast majority of respondents use them every day. He also demonstrates that although many people claim to know how to install a browser in theory. However, many people never install an alternative browser in practice.

A similar pattern can be seen between the number of people who claim to know how to change their default browser and the number of people who actually do. Basically, people raise privacy and security concerns, but they also don't act on them.

Mozilla accused Google, Microsoft and Apple of "favoring" each other and pressuring consumers to use their own browsers.

The report comes at a time when "own preference" remains a hot topic in the technology regulation space; The UK competition watchdog has issued a final report outlining "substantial concerns" about Google and Apple's market dominance.

Mozilla's position is that while there are alternatives, like open source firefox, to the big three browsers (Microsoft Edge, Apple Safari, and Google Chrome), users find it difficult or expensive to switch from these, especially given the way Microsoft, Apple, and Google are designing their operating systems (Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android, mainly) to keep people locked up. This cuts off interest in competing browsers, which see limited usage and development efforts, and never take off to challenge the status quo.

Also, Google, Apple, and Mozilla are the only major browser engine makers left, another indicator that users don't have many options. Apple is pushing its WebKit engine, at the heart of Safari, to Mac and iOS users; Mozilla has its Gecko engine in Firefox; and Google has managed to integrate its Chromium Blink engine not only into Chrome for desktop and Android, but also into Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, Opera, etc., on multiple platforms.

With Apple focused on its own ecosystem, that leaves only Gecko and Blink on many platforms. This, according to Mozilla, is not a good deal for web developers or Internet users. The dominant engine is well placed to dictate future web standards.

"The research we publish with this report paints a complex picture with many paradoxes: People say they know how to switch browsers, but many never do," the Mozilla team wrote. “Many people think that they can choose their browser, but they have a predilection for software that is pre-installed, default and difficult to modify.”

Tech giants design their software to influence people's choices, and operating system makers use these techniques to drive usage in their own browsers, crushing all rivals, according to Mozilla.

"Competition in browsers and browser engines is necessary to advance innovation, performance, speed, privacy, and security," the Mozilla team explained. "Effective competition requires multiple stakeholders to counter the power of a small number of giants and prevent them from dictating the future of the Internet for all of us."

On top of all that, Meta ships its own Chromium-based Oculus browser with its VR headsets, and Amazon uses Chromium's Blink engine in the browser bundled with its devices.

Mozilla also recalled that some major tech companies have banned standalone app adoption, citing that Apple lacks the setting to remove Safari as the default browser until 2020, meaning iOS consumers trying to use another browser have been stuck in continuous use of Safari for 13 years.

Finally and as a personal comment, I dare to say that the way in which Mozilla expresses its concern about the small market of web browsers (since we only have Chrome, Firefox and safari, among some other independent projects, is misdirected, but that are not relevant enough), since telling someone that "his creation" is wrong because it has X component, personally is not the way.

And also Mozilla must be realistic that the market that it had at some point, it did not know how to maintain and has no choice but to innovate or die trying, since the same thing happened to Internet Explorer at the time, it is going to happen to Chrome and Mozilla has a lot to do.

If you want to know more about it, you can consult the details in the following document.