Its close to 2 weeks now since Apple released Safari browser for Windows and things are getting clearer on Apple’s strategy. Clearly, its not money as Apple has no hopes of making any revenues on Safari whatsoever (unless it has an agreement with Google like Firefox foundation for integrating Goolge search into the browser).
Well it’s about gaining market share without pissing off Bill Gates. Bob Cringely has two articles on this, wherein he points out the need for having higher customization of AJAX apps for Safari because of its integration into the iPhone (plus there is the agenda of Google!) and also to offer a broader array of web services to its customers on the iPhone.
I see some reason in this strategy but doubt if web developers are going to sit up immediately and write/modify AJAX applications specifically for Safari and hence the iPhone. As these statistics for current usage of browser and PC OS show, this will definitely take some time. Millions of people have to download the Safari browser or alternately millions of iPhones have to be sold for customising of AJAX applications to start.
While all this on, I wonder what would happen if somehow the Internet Explorer or Firefox were to be ported and made available for free for iPhone within months of its release!
