A few days ago, Adam explained on his blog why it would make sense for Apple to port Safari to Windows: "Maybe it's making a leap of faith, and yes, the browser market is one where making a noticeable entrance will be challenging, but the less of a jump into the deep end buying a Mac is, the easier it is to make your Apple brand accessble, available, and not scary. The best way to start? Safari on Windows." Yesterday, Mary Jo Foley dug up from deep within Mozilla's Wiki the following prediction by the Mozilla Foundation: "Apple may have Safari on Windows with likely ties to iTunes and .Mac." This line has now been changed into a more general statement ("WebKit may be ported to Windows" - which already happened) but point remains: does it make sense for Apple to port Safari to Windows?
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Member since:2005-07-24
"""First of all, it doesn't make any sense to port Safari to Windows...it doesn't make Apple any money so why bother?"""
You are counseling the tried and true American business strategy of short-sightedness. (Hey, I live in Oklahoma; I should know!)
You sound like the folks who think that OSS developers should restrict use of their apps from Windows users in a mean-spirited attempt to force them to use Open-Source OSes. In my opinion that is most distasteful.
Actually, there are good reasons for a port. Safari, like all non-IE browsers suffer from a lack of net-presence.
Web developers cannot be bothered to support it because not enough people run it.
Yes, yes, I know. We're all supposed to be able to simply write to standards and have everything work. That is the holy grail. But it's not yet in our reach, is it?
A (quality) Windows port of Safari would be of benefit not only to Apple, but to us all.
Edited 2007-01-12 20:03
Member since:2005-06-29
Safari is usually on the list of things to support right after firefox. I think it actually has a higher percentage than Opera... It gets supported as it is by most quality web software.
But I agree, a Windows version of Safari might bring apple some extra media and could make users more comfortable with switching later.
However, I'd argue that for Apple their application suites are enough to get people to switch and they shouldn't be ported (iTunes was ported to sell iPods). If they port iLife it might adversely affect them, besides a lot of Windows machines probably lack the balls to run the graphics.
I don't think Safari is a real attraction to OS X at this point.
Member since:2006-01-11
Plain marketing. Safari isn't one of the best browsers around, yet being better than IE at standard compliance.
I'll stick to FF on every OS that runs it...
My guess: doesen't make technologically sense, but this is advertising, a whole different business where Apple excels 
Member since:2005-10-12
...if Apple starts porting all its "cool" apps to Windows, what is the incentive for people to switch to the Mac?
This is indeed how they think in Cupertino. They are always looking for some 'must buy' item. When they have found it, the idea is they will then bundle it with a bunch of other stuff you don't want, and make you buy that too, as a condition of getting it.
As a business strategy its a brilliant way of limiting market share and allowing deficiencies in any one product line to infect all. From an ethical point of view it leads inevitably to lockins and DRM/Trusted Computing restrictions, to stop people doing what they want to do with your products.
From an intellectual point of view its bankrupt. Think about it in its clearest form: the argument that we need to lock OSX to Apple hardware, so as to sell Apple hardware. The argument, unpacked, is that the no-one, or very few people, would buy our hardware on its merits. Well, if that is true, right there is your problem, and it needs fixing. Bundling and restricting your customers choice is not fixing it.
Its bankrupt in another way. You are imposing costs on your customers which you'd do better to levy directly in the price. That way you'd get cash for the extra costs incurred by customers directly on your bottom line, and you'd have some way of knowing what exactly your must have item is worth.
The answer is probably divisionalize, and let each of the divisions reach their potential by selling unbundled. This is what happened with Filemaker, and its a great success. But as long as Jobs is there the business model will be frozen in about 1987, so we'll hear the 'incentive' argument over and over again from Apple fans.
Member since:
2005-07-06
First of all, it doesn't make any sense to port Safari to Windows...it doesn't make Apple any money so why bother?
Second, if Apple starts porting all its "cool" apps to Windows, what is the incentive for people to switch to the Mac? Some people buy Macs only because of the cool apps it has.