“Microsoft is not threatened by the announcement of Safari for Windows. Bill Gates isn’t pissed off that Apple has challenged him. Gates is worried about Firefox, not Safari, and even Firefox is just a minor annoyance or else Microsoft would be doing a better job of competing with it,” Robert X. Cringley writes for PBS.
“Beyond garnering some press, Safari for Windows is about AT&T. Steve Jobs is the best salesperson in the entire universe, but he doesn’t like to waste his time. That means that, having seduced AT&T (nee Cingular), Steve will try to sell them more and more stuff until they have bought everything he has. He will invent stuff specifically to sell to AT&T as long as it acts as a bridge to yet more stuff he wants to sell them,” Cringley writes.
“Steve wants AT&T to see him not just as the answer to their prayers, but as the answer to their EVERY prayer… Here is the complex package of goods Apple is trying to sell to AT&T: There’s the iPhone, of course, but there is also the Apple TV as a potential set-top box. Three hundred dollars for a set-top box? You have to be crazy! Not so crazy. Compared to not spending the kind of money Verizon is spending on fiber, Apple TVs are cheap even if AT&T gives them away,” Cringley writes.
“This move isn’t about taking down Microsoft, it isn’t about making Macintosh computers the dominant computing platform, it IS about performing a massive cashectomy on AT&T. But to Apple’s credit the company doesn’t want anyone to see this as theft, but rather as a technical triumph, simply because when AT&T’s exclusive is over in five years, Apple will want to do similar deals with all of AT&T’s competitors,” Cringley writes.
Much more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Bob,” “LinuxGuy and Mac Prodigal Son,” and “Kevin G.” for the heads up.]
Cringely, while always entertaining, could well be quite wrong about the threat Safari poses to Microsoft. “With 18.6 million Safari users currently, according to Jobs’ in his WWDC Keynote, and some percentage of Windows Safari users to come, with the Mac user base growing nicely, plus all iPhone users on Safari, we’re looking at 100 million or more Safari users within 30 months… Steve Jobs, by releasing Safari to Windows, has laid the foundation for the next major computing platform which will be Web-based, built for Safari, mobile, and Apple’s.” – SteveJack, MacDailyNews, June 12, 2007. Full article here.
Is Safari is so important, why can’t Apple put in a sidebar? IE and Firefox have had them for years. Apple can’t do something similar?
Right now Safari is a second rate browser without a sidebar and it will remain that way. Who cares if it loads pages a few seconds sooner? I have so many tabs opened, I don’t care. I open all my pages before I start reading so I have no wait time.
Give us a sidebar, Apple. Do it now.
“massive cashectomy”
Reminds me of Papillon. Please wash those bills first.
Wow, now that’s some conspiratorial thinking. Seriously. Wow.
Cashectomy. Cute term. It seems to me that AT&T might have a differing opinion here.
Lets not forget that the iPhone requires Safari for it’s bookmarks, Ajax appz, blah, blah. Believe it or not, Windows users will buy the iPhone. Hence they need iTunes, Quicktime & Safari. This is a MUST MOVE for Apple.
Stop checking out my bikini and get back to work
BoShuda, what would the sidebar do? I personally don’t miss not having one. I’m not saying it doesn’t serve a purpose, I’m just honestly interested as to why it’s so important.
Sidebar?
Okay, while I agree that Safari needs some kind of streamlined bookmark management, there are alternatives to waiting around and grinding your teeth.
Buy a copy of Concierge. The sidebar and bookmark management is great. It’s only $10 and does a nice job of making browser History easily accessible.
http://www.bti.net/concierge/index.php
Cringley writes an awful lot to say nothing.
One of the great side benefits of dethroning Microsoft from its monopoly position would be the burial of dumb-asses like Cringely, Dvorak, Enderle, Scoble and Thurrott. Their connection to Windows reporting is the only possible explanation for their “industry analyst” status, and they take up way too much web commentary time and space.
Even with 100 million of copies of Safari in the next 30 months, that still equals less than 10% market-share for browsers… I don’t always agree with Cringely, but in this case, I think he’s right.. Safari is not much of a threat to MS.
@Julie:
Put on some clothes, wench.
as my little indian friend on that bingo game show would say…
noooooooo sidebar.
People, (trolls excluded
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Remember, its Steve Jobs we are talking about. There is a PLAN here. It may not be our plan but I think it started way back when he said that Microsoft was not the enemy. He had a plan.
As more and more people are exposed to the Apple approach, more and more get hooked. More and more move over. Maybe not now, maybe not tommorow, but soon and forever after.
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Its a slow stepping plan. One sneaky step at a time. If you want to clobber a giant, you do not stand in front of him and scream. You sneak up from behind and when the time is right. BAMB.
When you think iPhone, think Safari, Google apps, ease of use, security, everywhere, easy of use, everywhere, uniform approach, easy to use and learn, . . . . . e v e r y w h e r e!!!!
One step at a time.
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en – ne, sometimes I get them mixed up.
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MDN word, stay. as in stay tuned for more and more great news.
I spend… too much time in a web browser, all day, every week day. But I stopped using bookmarks years ago. Typing what I’m after into the Google search box or the URL line is, for me, much faster than using bookmarks. I do have a handful of them in my bookmarks toolbar, but I often forget to use them because I just type them in. The browser fills in the “http://www.” automatically, and chances are I’ve been there already and the rest gets filled in for me.
So, I guess I just don’t understand why people need bookmarks.
Q. What made Bell/AT&T so great back in the day?
A. R&D and the products it produced.
If AT&T still has an R&D department, I have not heard anything from them in YEARS. Apple gladly has become a contract R&D/innovation department. The difference is, at the end of the day, Apple owns the patents & technology, and will reap the recurring revenue for years to come.
Right now Safari is a second rate browser without a sidebar and it will remain that way.
This is a strange metric for browsers. “Fast standards-based HTML rendering? Bah. Does it have a sidebar?”
On a not-at-all-but-maybe-kinda-sorta related matter… What’s up with Apple’s website? It’s been screwy for weeks.
what a moron. sometimes these people that spew out ideas just to fill up space.
Even though it is not related to this post i thought it would be useful for safari users on windows. There is an article on securing safari on windows:
http://iprodreviews.blogspot.com/2007/06/securing-safari-how-to-run-apples-web.html
Want a Safari sidebar? Get the Safari Stand add on. Problem solved. Next Issue.
“Its a slow stepping plan. One sneaky step at a time. If you want to clobber a giant, you do not stand in front of him and scream. You sneak up from behind and when the time is right. BAMB.”
the funny thing that people miss, is that this stuff tends to run exponentially. the small user gains but big mind share that Apple worked so hard for over the last several years have built up to the point that a lot of people are now looking for an excuse to switch.
for some, the intel chips where that excuse. for others, the craptasticness that is vista. a few more will change for leopard. a few for the iPhone……
…but the real importance is that every one person that switches means a little more visibility. most people really are sheep. they won’t be adopters. they don’t want to be different. they want follow safely in others steps. every one person that heads over means a perceived safe path for a few more.
and if the iPhone is half the success it could be, that makes it that much easier to drum up interest for the next device. and that in turn increases interest in old devices, including Macs.
if Apple can have another hit with the iPhone, pod, Mac and TV sales all go up. if they can have one or two more hits after that…
in 6 years Apple could have 8-9 separate devices out, at minimum 50% market share. they could be a real giant.
interesting times.
@Prophet, “So, I guess I just don’t understand why people need bookmarks.”
——————————————-
Because some people can visit dozens if not hundreds of sites in a single day and not always remember the site’s URL, especially if directed there from another link.. That’s what bookmarks are for.
iApple + iGoogle = iHappy
Food for thought:
1. Eric Schmidt is on the Board of both Apple and Google
2. Al Gore is on the board of both Apple and Google
3. Safari is the ‘app’ gateway for the iPhone
4. Google Maps is the only initial “we love” back-end service dependent app on the iPhone
To be continued…
http://safarissues.blogspot.com/
I see this compared to what the iPod is to Apple:
Is Apple really concerned about an iPod competitor? Apple knows they have the vast majority of the portable mp3 market, so companies like Sandisk and Microsoft aren’t really that worried about. mApple knows they’ll continue to sell at a 75% market share, just as long as “iPod” is attached to the back cover of the product.
Now take Microsoft. They know they’ve got the vast majority of computer users out there, and probably will continue to have them for the foreseable future…despite what we Mac junkies think. The fact is…most people out there don’t think too much about their computer purchase. They’re used to Microsoft, so they’ll stick to it. You think Microsoft is too worried about a browser? Come on people.
Microsoft has a HUGE HUGE government contract, and ENORMOUS corporate and medical contracts…not to mention the countless small businesses that are tied to it’s software. Microsoft, as much as we loathe it, is staying put and will continue to be the big boy. Bill Gates knows that, Steve jobs knows that, and we all know that.
And just to throw in a completely off-topic thingy…the new Netscape Navigator beta on my MBP is REALLY fast, faster then Safari 3 beta in everyday browsing. You all should try it out.
There needs to be WEB optimized content, not BROWSER optimized content.
I want to use the browser I choose and have no problems accessing web pages
this is exactly why internet explorer optimized web pages suck. We need standards across the board, not for each browser.