When Apple kicked off 2003 by releasing its own browser, "Safari," Macintosh users greeted the release with enthusiasm. In Safari's first six months, users downloaded more than 5 million copies of the beta software. But analysts voiced a concern, which turned out to be well-founded. In early summer, Microsoft announced it would no longer release new versions of Internet Explorer for Macintosh. "Was this a self-fulfilling prophecy?" Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg wondered.
"Apple clearly needs to be in charge of its own destiny for critical parts of its operating system, like the Web browser. On the other hand, when Apple took control of that destiny, it led Microsoft to pull back from their IE development, which was the thing that Apple feared in the first place," Gartenberg told NewsFactor. Without a future version of IE, Safari's performance becomes critical for the Macintosh's famed user interface. Is Apple's browser up to the task?
News source: NewsFactor
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