Safari: Windows Edition Earns Praise from Computerworld


As more than a million Windows editions of Safari are downloaded, Computerworld checks out the browser beta.

Why would Apple port its Mac browser to Windows? wonders Computerworld. When Windows users are spoilt for choice and IE dominates, what's the point?

Well, iPhone is the point, but there are other reasons: selling Macs. Not to mention browser market share and, possibly, ad revenue via partnerships, like the one with Google. But Apple also boasts about how much faster Safari 3.0 is than IE and Firefox on Win and Mac.

And it is. Various tests around the web verify its ascendancy over the Microsoft and open source browsers. Subjectively, too, it feels faster.

Over 4 years ago, IGM asked, First iPod, now iTunes: Is Apple Becoming a Windows Developer by Stealth? This prediction is becoming truer by the day. Apple is, as Jobs reminded us during his fireside chat with Bill Gates recently, at heart, a software company.

Building Windows software to sell hardware is Apple's raison d'être. iTunes for Windows? Sells iPods. Boot Camp? (by default, a piece of software that makes 'Windows' possible on Mac). Sells Macs. QuickTime for Windows? Sells iPods. Possibly also sells Macs.

Now iTunes and, yes, Safari on Windows will help sell iPhones. It's all about consistency; the same apps on different devices, regardless of platform. It's harmonization - Safari will look the same no matter what it's accessed on. So will iTunes. Feature parity. Same interface. Microsoft knows this is important as well, which is why it has worked hard - if not terribly successfully - on making suites like Office similar in terms of menus and toolbars. Apple itself has deviated from its original mission - interface consistency - in OS X, but it's making amends by moving to integrate the UI of its apps across various platforms and devices.

Impressing the Windows majority is important. With Macs' move to Intel, better software and seamless integration of iApps with hardware - and no viruses - the number of reasons to 'switch' have never been greater. Safari is merely one more part in that puzzle.