> Safari.... not really sure why Safari is there other than to try and support Windows developers of iPhone-targeted web-apps (before there was an official iPhone API).
My impression was that they ported Safari to window after they saw how much cash Mozilla was making from the embedded search fields.
Probably doesn't hurt to also have one more way for potential Mac customers to dip their toe in the pool...
Well that was another theory. When they first released it I saw these theories:
* It's there to help encourage developers from Windows to write iPhone web apps.
* It's there to help encourage web developers that use Windows to make their pages Safari/WebKit-compatible (because they don't have to own a Mac to test their pages against it).
* It's there to foster 'switchers' by showing people that there are viable applications on the Mac (and that it's not a 'broken' platform). (e.g. the guy that sat behind me when I went to see 'White Noise' that kept complaining to his girlfriend that Michael Keaton was using a Mac and how much faster the audio processing that he -- Michael Keaton's character -- was doing would be going if he was on a PC with Windows)
* It's the vanguard of Apple moving software to Windows to ditch OS X.
* It's the the vanguard of Apple porting their core libraries to Windows to make running Windows apps under OS X native and seamless. (i.e. Apple + WINE or something like that)
* It's their to drive up the number of Safari users to force better web standards.
* Apple has no clue what they are doing.
* Apple was using it as a way to make people excited and not bummed over the announcement that there would be no native API for developers on the iPhone. (Yes. It was released at that Keynote).
Obviously some of these have proven false. As for the rest, it's a toss-up.
My impression was that they ported Safari to window after they saw how much cash Mozilla was making from the embedded search fields.
Probably doesn't hurt to also have one more way for potential Mac customers to dip their toe in the pool...