"When you don’t have to worry about the development of a rendering engine then you can focus on the actual browser. Google understood this with Chrome and it is fast climbing up the charts. I know that WebKit development is essentially controlled by Apple, but since it is open source who really cares?"
Actually, Google surpassed Apple in commits to the WebKit repository a few months ago. Google adopted WebKit with Chrome but by no means are they not worried about the rendering engine's development.
Apple tends to have a flurry of commits right before a new Safari is about to be released, or a new OS release is made. That is when Apple commits the latest and greatest they have to offer.
It will be interesting to see when this happens again.
Curious - have there been any conflicts between Apple/Google on the direction WebKit is going? (e.g., Google implements a bunch of stuff in WebKit which ends up invalidating some work Apple was doing. Apple backs out the offending changes and checks in their stuff. etc. etc.)
Actually, Google surpassed Apple in commits to the WebKit repository a few months ago. Google adopted WebKit with Chrome but by no means are they not worried about the rendering engine's development.