According to MacRumors, Apple Incorporated recently allowed several browser applications into the AppStore, including the free Edge browser, the Incognito, priced at $1.99, the WebMate ($0.99) and the Shaking Web ($1.99).

The company’s decision to give the green light to third party applications for the App Store comes as a surprise to many, since Apple has its own Safari browser preinstalled on the iPhone and has previously claimed “duplicate functionality” as the reason for rejecting non-Safari apps on the smartphones.

Safari was released as a public beta on January 7, 2003, first on Apple’s Mac OS X operating system, followed by the browser’s launch on the iPhone and the iPod. Over the years, its marketshare has increased, reaching a percentage of 6.65 last September.

Nevertheless, all the above-mentioned browsers were developed by using the Safari one as a base, which raises the question whether Apple would come to allow apps like Opera or Firefox into their App Store.

Back in November, word had it that Opera engineers had developed Opera Mini, a version of the browser that could work on Apple Incorporated’s iPhone, but that the latter company had refused to launch it on the gadget.

The reason behind the refusal to use Opera Mini on the iPhone was the browser’s duplicate functionality, which entailed that the software could interpret downloaded from the Web JavaScript. Still, the rules Apple has drawn for their AppStore do not allow that the core functionality of the iPhone be replicated.