african lyin' safari

Safari is available for both Mac OS X, and now Windows too! Yay? Meh.

According to Apple, Safari is “the world’s best browser”. Really? It’s pretty. It looks good with the rest of Mac OS X. However, compared to Firefox and Opera, Safari isn’t in the same league. Try using all of Gmail‘s features in Safari and you’ll see what I mean. It could be a good browser, but it needs much more work to get to that point.

So why are Windows users getting another browser to choose from? It appears that the iPhone might be driving this reasoning. Developers can create applications using nothing more than HTML and JavaScript, which will run on Safari on the iPhone. For Windows developers, they won’t need to purchase Mac hardware to create iPhone apps. That makes sense, albeit the apps that can be created via HTML+JavaScript won’t be as robust as those created with a native iPhone API.

Is there another reason Safari has been ported to Windows? I sure hope it’s not to sway Windows users to the world of Mac, by raising awareness of Apple to PC users. If that’s the case, they’d be going about it all wrong. For the past several years I’ve been saying that if you need a computer and aren’t a tech savy person, buy a Mac. Having a Windows version of Safari available won’t do much to raise awareness, even if they bundle it with iTunes+Quicktime, because:

• Average PC users generally don’t actively look for new and better browsers to download and install. To them, the big blue “e” on their desktop that’s been there since they first booted up their computer after buying it is the Internet.
• The upfront cost of Mac hardware scares most people away. A comparable system from Dell or HP that sells for $300 less will make the average computer user’s purchasing decision easy, as they rarely are able to determine the total cost of ownership and are unable to realize that it’s potentially less expensive to own a Mac in the long-run.
• Average PC users are afraid to switch because they’re not certain if they can still run application X or if their files can be opened on a Mac.

For Apple to succeed in swaying PC users to the Mac side, they’ll have to put people’s concerns to rest regarding the higher initial cost of Mac hardware against the TCO of PC vs Mac hardware. Apple will also have to reassure users, through a closer relationship with VMware (Fusion) and SWsoft (Parallels Desktop) to alleviate PC users compatibility fears with their existing apps and files. And a sexy, but second-rate, web browser isn’t the way to go about it.