A day of surprises from Apple. First, there’s a new web site. A pretty overdue makeover I would say. A radically reduced navigation bar, a navigational bath at the bottom, use of dynamic AJAX elements and more use of video. The site’s search feature now resembles MacOS’s Spotlight search, which means search results start appearing as you start typing your search query. Very cool stuff.
But the really big surprise to me was that Apple has released its browser, Safari, for Windows.
Now Steve Jobs, speaking in the recent D conference, Jobs proudly said that iTunes is a popular application on Windows. “It’s like giving a glass of iced water to someone in hell,” he said, jokingly.
Now it seems Apple want to give Windows users another deliciously refreshing product. The implications of that could be profound. Safari on Windows will create another dent in Internet Explorer’s ubiquity. The first dent was already created by the open source Firefox. If you take this site, 360east.com, as an example, you’ll find that FIrefox commands an impressive 30% share of browsers used to visit, with Safari standing at 8%.
Apple claims that Safari has an overall 4.9% market share. It will be interesting to see if the Safari for Windows ends up eating into IE’s or FireFox’s market share.
Is Apple refashioning itself as a software company? Will we see more application ports, now that Apple’s software is written for Intel’s processors. Even more dangerously, is Apple poised to release a version of MacOS for non-Apple hardware. Hackers have done this a long time ago.
Can we imagine a future for an Apple that makes most of it’s money from the iPod (and music/video) and the iPhone, enabling it to make a bet on going head to head with Windows in the OS space?
Today brought more good news from Apple. Speaking at the Apple World Wide Developer forum, Jobs announced that the iPhone will be more open for third part developers applications. He also showed off cool features from Leopard, the upcoming version of OS X.
Smart, Spotlight-like Apple site search
Videos feature prominently on Apple’s new site.
If you haven’t seen the new iPhone ads, then have a look.
Also have a look at the hilarious new Mac vs PC ads..
Comments
18 responses to “Apple releases Safari for Windows and redesigns site”
I just installed Safari, and trying to play around with it and then!! SHOCK
it doesn’t support Uniscribe engine … OOPS! Arabic letters look like isolated letters! Come on… even firefox did this one right 
So much for world’s “best” browser! Humph!
Hmmm what else? It took FOREVER to start, well it was the first time, maybe it will get better with time
Porting Safari over to the PC will be a big plus when it comes to development support of the browser. It’s a smart move by Apple, I think.
I’m afraid Safari wont kill FireFox
read this:
http://rss.slashdot.org/%7Er/Slashdot/slashdot/%7E3/124099361/article.pl
I just downloaded it. Already having problems. I like the interface a lot better than IE (which is all I have ever used). It is much easier to change preferences and even easier on the eyes. But it has already errored and shit down on my 20 times! The bookmark function is not working at all, cuases the window to close everytime I try to use. it. Also I had to download a bunch of plug ins but ne window opens to manage my downloads which is very usefull. If it was not for the bookmark problem I would not use IE ever again! It is really that good. And faster!
It is exciting news indeed. I am using Safari now running on Windows XP. What disappointing is that it does not support Arabic Encoding, even though the Arabic Encoding is listed, neither it would install on Vista x64.
hmmm regrettably i don’t think it would affect the IE status, it would be nice to see less people using IE but its such a shame that most of the ppl currently using IE just are not willing to try a new experience.
They are scared in a way and they are not exactly tech savy enough to notice or care for the difference, for gods sake there are still ppl using the AOL browser which should have been dead 5 years ago
I almost cried when I heard the news. It’s a dream come true. Safari on Windows! Hurrah!
I just can’t find a reason to hate apple.
The new iphone mobile is so amazing and pretty good …
I like its shape and how it is designed…
it doesn’t work well on windows though
thats the last thing a web developer needs for developing under windows
is a hell for a developer
another strong browser that may waste a lot of time
testing under
IE firefox and now Safari
God why cant they follow one slandered and save us a lot of time??
is there would be any development tool under safari as firefox?
like the firebug?
Alaa. They do all follow one standard. Ever heard of WC3?
Errr… Make that W3C*
Leopard should come with Arabic localization. For the 4th most widely spoken language its pathetic they didn’t do this sooner.
long live IE, it survived, netscape, it survived firefox, its gonna survive safari, agool, im a technical who is not afraid of using something new, and i am going to download it just to see things working on it, but IE works fine for me, and trust me i do a lot on browsers… its my daily job… firefox are learning from IE but ppl dont realize it, or refuse to admit it, IE learns from FireFox people see that as a weekness! IE does exactly as I expect it to do, i couldnt or didnt know how to ban cookies on Firefox from certain websites, that is so easy to do on IE… tell u what, now with the increasing number of firefox users, the problems are showing… Ie looks like heaven to me at least because they support THE %$%$ EVENT OBJECT!
well i like to start by saying that the new apple website ROX its gr8 and reflects the apple slick look and feel, its easy to use and navigate , and the effort used on this site shows.
as for safari, i am very happy to finally have this PC version it makes it easy to test on all kind of browses, i always play it safe when XHTMLing/CSSing i use no hacks and my markup is always semantic and valid so if a browser as it claims support standards then my work should function there without any doubt so safari,Fx, IE, Opera… or what ever it works there.
bambam, i am not taking the IE side i am an FX guy but IE is pushing the web development forward not like other browsers who play it safe, our problem with IE comes from its quirks “which can be fixed” and “worked around”.
Mohammad , its not just the W3C who builds standards for the web there are many other organizations for that. and the last time i check standards were only recommendations, the standards thingy is just a catchy name that came out to make ppl notice it.
Alaa Abdelhaq, testing under browsers isn’t a waste of time, yes its time consuming still u have to do it in-order to attract the biggest audience there is, u gonna say why have all these browsers and all those rendering engines, well i tell u stop crying about it coz its there, just find ur way around it.
I would like to point that a new version of safari was delivered through update today.
its bug free as far as i can tell.
just to get thing goin here again.
i just installed the new updated safari PC version, and YES now it supports Arabic
, its much more stable. and honestly its damn fast 