Story: Firefox chief fumes over Apple Safari update

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Optional is not an option

Lets face it - the Apple fan boys are all rocking Macs. So where is the target audience on PC? The Apple fans too poor to pay for over priced macs or the Apple users that are forced to use PCs for work.

The small number of users that would WANT safari on PC beyond web developers that need it for testing would not be wide spread. So forced or unwitting install is the only option.

I think Apple want widespread safari install base to encourage developers to make Safari web apps. Having iPhones, macs AND PC users would greatly increase the attraction of developing for the browser. At the moment it gets ignored by a lot of developers even when building sites. If the development team/studio work on PC they are not going to shell out for a mac just for testing safari, espcially if they look at their webstats and see that less than 1% of their users have that browser. If, however, there is a larger install base due to PC users and they can test on PC then Safari becomes a more serious browser to develop for.

I think making the browser better than rivals is what Apple should have done so that people would WANT to install it and actually use it. Having a stripped down browser that runs a bit quicker but has less functionality is not what the average user will install. Users that want simple will stick with what came with their OS - IE. Users that are more tech savvy will install Firefox, Opera or another browser with the features they want rather than a stripped down one.

Unlike their physical devices they can't make the browser a fashion statement and a marketing buzz and so Apples main selling points are out the window (the packaging and the poser status). Leaving little or no reason to install and therefore forced adoption was the next alternative.

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