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June 15, 2007
Why Safari 3 for Windows
Lots of wild speculation about why Safari 3 for Windows.
I choose to accept the most simple explanations for behavior. There are still lots of sites that do not work well with Safari. The development of Safari for Windows is likely just a less expensive way for Apple to ensure a great web browsing experience for its Mac and iPhone users than what they are currently doing.
Assumptions
1. Apple spends lots of developer hours responding to Safari/web site incompatibility issues (a practice it actively encourages).
2. Getting Safari on Windows will grow the Safari user base which will result in Safari showing a greater distribution in web server user agent logs.
3. Web site developers will pay more attention to Safari when its distribution is greater.
Conclusion
The marginal effort to get to Safari on Windows above what they have already done with WebKit and iTunes can be offset by the reduction in developer hours required to respond to Safari/web site incompatibility bugs. Further, John Gruber suggests there is a healthy revenue stream from the Google search box which further helps the financial justification.
Posted by Chris at June 15, 2007 06:11 AM