Apple calls foul on web browser speed test

Earlier today, we told you about a study conducted by Blaze Software comparing the native browser speeds in Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android. The results of over 45,000 tests were published, and the firm concluded that Android was roughly 52% faster than iOS in terms of browser performance. Not so fast, says Apple. In a statement to blog The Loop, an Apple spokesperson pointed out a perceived flaw in Blaze Software’s methodology. “Their testing is flawed because they didn’t actually test the Safari web browser on the iPhone,” wrote Apple’s spokesperson. “Instead they only tested their own proprietary app which uses an embedded web viewer that doesn’t take advantage of Safari’s web performance optimizations. Despite this fundamental testing flaw, they still only found an average of a second difference in loading web pages.” The UIWebView framework, which was used to run Blaze’s “proprietary app” in an “embedded web viewer,” does not leverage Apple’s Nitro JavaScript engine — the part of mobile Safari that Apple claims is nearly 2x faster than its predecessor. Tests that leverage the enhanced JavaScript engine would, according to Apple, have improved Safari’s performance. Blaze Software has yet to publicly comment on Apple’s rebuttal.

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