Windows Invades Apple Developer Turf

One sore spot with Safari is its sometimes problematic compatibility with the ancient code still used in many places on the Internet. Now, Safari "conforms to Web standards," as the Apple marketing folks say, but it doesnt sport all the baggage of exceptions code that lets IE deal with the terrible legacy sites.

Most Mac users can come up with a short list of sites that are written specifically for Windows and, beyond that, for IE. So, if Apple can gain market share, sites will make sure to keep Safari and Mac users in mind when deciding on architecture and support for Web 2.0 compliance.

However, one watcher of the Mac industry said the push for a Windows version of Safari is more about the forthcoming iPhone, which will run a slimmed-down version of OS X and the Safari browser.

According to Neil Ticktin, CEO of Xplain, the Westlake Village, Calif., publisher of MacTech, a Mac developer journal, "In order for iPhone customers to have the quality of experience that Apple wants, [Safari] has to have enough market share. Its not about bringing the Apple experience to Windows customers. Jobs said [Apple] wants a bigger browser share—its not like theyre going to get revenue from it."

Seeding such support around the Web may be an important task for Apple with its new mobile platform. The story around Apple quality and hardware-software integration is understood by the switchers to computing on the Macintosh, and Apple is sending the same message to those purchasing an iPhone.

This same concern for QA can be seen in Apples choice for third-party development for the iPhone.

Before WWDC at a recent industry conference, Jobs said that while Apple was seeking a way for developers to build applications for the iPhone, he didnt want the iPhone to be "one of those phones that crashes a few times a day."

Most Mac sites targeted the size of applications that Apple might allow or whether developers will be held to "widgets," or small applets that combine splashes of HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

Instead, Apple will deliver the applications in the Web 2.0 way: as services using the Safari 3 browser as a platform. This opens development to a wider class of coders, opens the delivery to the Web and enables the use of popular Web programming environments.

I didnt get a chance to ask many WWDC attendees, but that must have been a disappointment among the Mac developers.

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