Okay last week when I got my update screen for iTunes I couldn’t help but notice that the Safari browser was listed as one of the download options. Needless to say this was surprising that Apple would resort to rolling out their browser like this. Personally I had already downloaded the browser a few weeks back to see how well it operated on Vista and rendered our clients websites, etc., but pushing it out in an automated update was kind of shocking to see. I saw it as a bold move on Apple’s part and figured that it wouldn’t go unnoticed by others as well.
In a recent entry on WHIR I noticed that Mozilla’s CEO voiced his opinion on the matter (Web Host Industry News | Mozilla CEO Criticizes Apple Move), I get the impression that he was just about as shocked as I was to see this browser rolled out in this fashion.
Well this sat in my live writer drafts folder for a week or so and during this time I have learned that Apple has came forward with an apology stating that the release of Safari through their updating engine was a violation of their own TOS (terms of service). Wow, could it be that they knew this before they did it?? Hmmmmmmm, kind of makes you wonder huh? Me personally, I think that this was just the introduction that Apple planned all along to push their browser onto the market. If you think about it, even a slight push like this probably helped them to achieve a modest gain in market share for web browsers.
I should probably state for the record that my opinion of the Safari browser is that it is a GREAT web browser, it renders pages very nicely and is considerably faster than IE. Firefox is still my default browser though but if it wasn’t for Safari’s limitations in terms of Plugins and extensions for Vista I might give it another look..
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