Why would Apple port their Safari browser to Windows? I know Steve Jobs said that he wants to see if they can gain market share yesterday, but realistically speaking, that’s not going to happen. Safari isn’t even the best browser for OS X, and Windows users who are up for downloading an alternate browser will probably use Firefox. I don’t think that’s really the point, though. The point is to give Web developers fewer excuses to ignore Safari. Being that Safari is not only the default browser for OS X but the only browser for the iPhone, Apple needs to make sure that more applications are Safari-tested. Plus, this seems like the first step toward offering some kind of Safari-based iPhone software development kit that runs on both Windows and OS X.
Simon Willison predicts the unforeseen circumstances.
Do also check out John Gruber’s analysis of the keynote.
June 12, 2007 at 4:16 pm
I thought it was pretty much entirely to encourage/allow Windows developers to develop for iPhone.
June 12, 2007 at 5:10 pm
With iTunes already on Windows, it seems a lot of the Frameworks were already in place. But yes, it does seem driven by the iPhone.
Oh, Rafe…TypeKey is busted: An error occurred: The sign-in validation failed.
June 12, 2007 at 6:23 pm
Bingo, you just nailed it. There is no other reason for this other than to get Safari recognized by web developers for Mac, iPhone and maybe even future versions of AppleTV
June 12, 2007 at 8:28 pm
wouldn’t it be smarter to work on the compatability problems so that developers would not need to test on safari? besides, if you’re targetting developers you need to port to linux and bsd.
June 12, 2007 at 11:27 pm
I think Rob nails it.
June 13, 2007 at 9:14 am
Actually, Safari is the best browser on the Mac, IMHO. Sure we have Firefox too, but its FUGLY and kinda kludgy. The only advantage Firefox has is plugins, which are cool (although they add to the kludgy-ness), but there are sufficient plugins for Safari to make it bend to my desires as well (Saft, SafariPlus, etc). I WANT to love Firefox, but I just keep going back to Safari. It works, its fast, and it stays outta my way.
Anyway, I don’t think Apple is thinking that Safari is going to take over the browser installed-base on Windows… that’s obvious by the fact that the vast majority of people still us Internet Explorer… c’mon! Obviously most people use whatever crap is installed on their PC and don’t venture too far astray. I think Apple just wanted Windows developers to be able to develop and test iPhone web-apps on their PCs, so as to grow the base of potential developers.