Quote of the Day
“Creativity is what happens when you take a zero off the budget.”
– James Hong quoting someone he can’t remember.
Safari on Windows: A Turning Point for Apple?
A few months ago I wrote a post pondering whether Adobe Apollo’s use of WebKit would cause greater support for Safari in various web properties. Today Apple tried to create some noise by announcing Safari for Windows, and most people seemed to receive this news with a big yawn. I think this announcement actually is big news, so at the risk of writing about a topic that has been covered ad nauseam at many other venues, here’s a few thoughts…
Of course, Apple is in a position to achieve remarkably good market share very quickly given the installed base of iTunes — everyone with an even modestly current version of iTunes also has the Apple Software Update tool that will automatically end up installing Safari on their machine whether they ask for it or not (even if Apple provides an opt-out, most won’t bother with that). In a year’s time, Apple could easily have more installed base of Safari on Windows than Firefox does (which is different than people using Safari on Windows, but I’ll get to that).
There’s also the obvious fact that has been pointed out by many others — Safari was also announced as the primary “application” platform for 3rd parties to deliver their wares for the iPhone, so Apple is clearly trying to create an opportunity for developers to “write once” and deploy across a wide range of platforms. Steve Jobs is openly telling developers that (at least on the iPhone) Safari is much more than just a web browser.
Thus, here’s the potentially big deal — if Safari is bundled with iTunes, it would be a short leap to simply build WebKit capability into iTunes, making iTunes not just a media player and the client for the Apple store but a full-blown cross-platform application delivery environment. That puts Apple into the game along with Adobe and Microsoft (not to mention Google and plenty of startups) to be the environment of choice for developers to invest their energies.
Such thinking would seem at odds with the closed model of iPod/iTunes and the generally tepid attitude Apple has about 3rd party development. Case in point — many feel that saying Safari allows for 3rd party development on the iPhone is basically a big F-You from Apple (or at least a lackluster attempt at openness).
At D5, Steve Jobs said (while on stage with Bill Gates), “And so the big secret about Apple, of course–not-so-big secret maybe–is that Apple views itself as a software company…and there’s not a lot of us left and Microsoft’s one of them.” This move clearly fits into that worldview, and moving a browser next to (in to?) iTunes is a necessary step to having a realistic chance to being a software platform that can be taken seriously beyond the point-application of media delivery. Releasing Safari on Windows is not being done casually — this is the next step in Apple’s rebirth, and in retrospect may be seen as a major turning point in the Apple positioning as a software giant rather than a closed-system device manufacturer.