Safari For Windows
Interesting, they've released Safari for Windows!
First impression is that it is very mac. I can't see this release making much of a dent in the market share of the other Windows browsers - the interface, menu structure etc feel like they are the result of extremely direct porting, and it ignores the standard Windows interface features, such as no middle click scroll mode, and no resizing at the edges. I'm sure it's a nice browser, but I can't help thinking that it will suffer from the same obstacles to adoption that Firefox and Opera suffer - and on top of that it's just too different to other Windows apps get widespread appeal.
Doesn't look like they were serious when they said that "Apple engineers designed Safari to be secure from day one". Mmm, sweet, sweet irony.
But the more I think about this move, the more it surprises me. By all accounts, Safari struggles to compete on its native platform, let alone in the already-crowded Windows browser market; and at the same time it takes away the sole reason/excuse that many people have/use to get a mac in the first place. And they're giving it away free - can't really see the business sense there. Well, free for now at least - the beta license only takes us up to 31st Dec 2007, or the next commercial release, whichever comes first. But trying to sell an arguably inferior browser in a market saturated with free ones? I doubt that will happen.
The only other real reason I can think of is that they're positioning themselves to make a big push into the web application market, introducing browser enhancements to supplement or even replace the existing client-side tech. The 'Show all bookmarks' page certainly looks like they're playing with (or with something along the lines of) XUL. It's an interesting idea, especially considering that's what they're pushing on the iPhone, and how friendly they are with Google (parent of numerous web apps and now Gears).
If not that, then they must just be going after the prestige of being the second-most used browser on Windows. But that seems like a fairly pointless way to spend their time and money - where's the profit? Well, I'm sure we'll find out soon enough.
Still, at least now I don't need to buy a mac ;)
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It's apple. Why would they want a business sense when "looking cool" is No. 1 on the priority list?
I suspect the real answer is the iPhone - it'd be braindead if the interface weren't at least partly based on webkit/safari.
Having a browser that runs on windows that people can test their web apps against would no doubt help with the iPhone compatibility...
Mmm, that does seem most likely. It does seem a bit far-fetched that they'd reinvent something like XUL and limit their potential audience for web apps, but then it's been done before.
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