In the end this comes down to a gripe that you can't use Chrome for web views on iOS owing to platform restrictions (and, secondarily, that you need to use XCo

In the end this comes down to a gripe that you can't use Chrome for web views on iOS owing to platform restrictions (and, secondarily, that you need to use XCode to submit to the App store, which I agree with, although it's pretty painless if you have a Mac). Guess what, you've now got that problem for Windows (the app store is blocking non-MS browsers) too. The problem doesn't exist for Android because Android is the new Windows -- for good and ill. A lot of web app developers (myself included) are highly reliant today on Chrome in the way that we were dependent on some flavor of IE in the past. In my case, I need WebRTC and the only other major browser that supports it right now (FireFox) does it so badly that in effect I'm developing exclusively for Chrome. That said, all of my non WebRTC code is as agnostic as possible, runs fine on Safari, and Safari/Webkit is supposed to get WebRTC "real soon now". This is essentially a "Safari is the new IE" meme in disguise. The closest thing to the new IE is whatever browser folks are treating as "the web" and that's Chrome right now. Don't forget that IE became the old IE in part because it delivered features programmers clamored for and was the best browser for most people for a long time. It only stopped being dominant because it stopped satisfying users. By most accounts users love Safari on iOS as a browser. If it's not a fabulous app platform that's because Apple isn't trying to meet the needs of app developers with Safari.