Apple’s default iPhone apps give it growing edge over App Store rivals

When consumers fire up the latest iPhones for the first time in the coming weeks, they’ll find the device brimming with Apple Inc.’s home-grown apps, already installed and set as default programs. This prized status isn’t available to outside software, making it hard for some developers to compete, and that’s catching the eye of lawmakers probing potential antitrust violations in the technology industry.

Being a default app on the world’s best-selling smartphone is valuable because consumers are subtly coaxed and prodded into using this more-established software rather than alternatives. For example, Safari is the iPhone’s default web browser, so when a user clicks a link to a website, it will automatically open there, even if other browsers are on the handset.