When I watched the WWDC keynote found it interesting that when talking about how Safari on Windows would increase Safari’s share of the browser market, that Steve Jobs’ slide showed IE’s share staying static and Safari’s share increased at the cost of Firefox etc. Jeff Waugh’s post and flickr post got me thinking about this some more, so here are what I see as the logical consequences of Steve’s hope/prediction:
- If every one on is using IE or Safari this implies that every one is using an OS that IE or Safari will run on: Windows or Mac: Every user of Linux (or other non Apple or MS OSs) will switch to Windows or Mac, and not user Firefox.
- As a result of Apple releasing Safari for Windows, all Mac Firefox users will dump Firefox for Safari on the Mac OR switch to Windows.
- The net effect will not result in any lose of browser share for IE. I would of thought that Windows user who have installed iTune for their iPod, but have never considered an alternative browser, may be Apple’s biggest potential market for Safari for Windows. Particularly if they bundle Safari with iTune, like they do with iTunes when you download Quicktime.
So why did Apple release Safari for Windows? Some have suggested that it has to do with ad revenue from the Google/Yahoo search bar, I think the primary reason is the iPhone. By releasing iTunes for Windows, Apple didn’t let the Mac’s low OS market share limit the sales of iPods. It seem that developer’s only way onto the iPhone is via Safari and Apple wants both Mac and Windows developers to developer for it.
That is why we now have Safari on Windows, but why did Steve’s slide show Safari taking market share from all other browser other then IE?
A lot of thought goes into every slide in a Steve Jobs keynote, there must be a reason for this slide. Could it be that Apple does not want to be seen as going after MS’s IE?
The only thing I know is that I will continue to using Firefox as my primary browser on all OSs.
