Apple is a good company, and for years it has stood by itself, flaunting its technology at the Windows world, not trying to beat it... or join it, for that matter. It said, we are here and we are good and we offer products that are unique and can't be beat. Besides their high quality computers, they have been wildly successful with such unique products as the iPod and the soon-to-be released iPhone. They were smart in that they made sure their unique products integrated with Windows computers, but they didn't try to take out Microsoft.
With that in mind, it does make one wonder why, all of a sudden, they would release a version of their MAC-only browser for Windows. In case you are not familiar with MAC computers, the most popular browser in that world is a product called Safari. I have heard it is a good browser, although not great and can be a little buggy at times. But it belonged only to the MAC world, which for MAC users, makes it special. It was something that Windows users couldn't have which made it even more special.
But this week, it was released in beta form for us Windows users. And of course, within 48 hours, hard core Windows users and tech reviewers got their hands on it to see how good or bad it is. And what did they find?
In the first 24 hours, a security expert found a serious security flaw. OK, it is still a beta product so we will give it a break. I am sure that will be fixed. Then, the folks at Wired magazine ran speed test pitting Safari against IE7 and Firefox. And guess what? Safari came in dead last against those two popular browsers. It is much slower, according to Wired. But that is not what Steve Jobs promised when he announced the release of Windows Safari. Here are his words at an Apple conference only last week:
“So what we’ve got is the most innovative browser in the world. but we’ve also got the fastest browser on Windows. It’s twice as fast as IE, 1.6 times faster than Firefox 2, and features built-in Google and Yahoo search."
Sorry, Steve, but the first test results say you are wrong. But, again, it is a beta version, so we will cut you some slack.
The most interesting part of this move by Apple, at least to me, is why do it at all? From what I read, some MAC users won't use Safari, so why port it over to Windows, especially when this market is so dominated by Microsoft's Internet Explorer, and to a lesser extent, by Firefox. And don't forget about Opera, a really terrific and fast browser. And to add to that, the re-emergence of our old friend, the latest incarnation of the Netscape browser that was released only last week. There is no reason for Sarfari to try and break into this market, especially since the first few days of its release has given Apple a black eye.
But, what do I know?
No comments:
Post a Comment