The Trojan Horse that Windows Can’t Stop
Windows users are justifiably paranoid about spyware, viruses, malware, trojan horses, and ransomware (if you don’t know what that is, click here). But a new threat to the Windows operating system has just been unleashed, and this time there’s no virus software or firewall that can stop it.
Hidden in between bombastic info about the iPhone and the Leopard operating system (now to be released in October 2007), Apple announced the port of Safari, their web browser, to the Windows operating system.
You might think, “so, big deal.” To that I say, “yes, BIG deal.”
So why am I getting all excited about a blimmin’ web browser on a PC? Lots of reasons.
We all use web browsers. Ether you are looking at one now, or you’re looking at my source code in Notepad (and if you are, please stop tutting at iWeb’s verbose script!). They are, lots of the time, our window to the increasingly important internet. Web browsers have also become highly sophisticated beasts. They can, thanks to technologies like Flash and Java, run little games and applets to allow us to do all sorts of useful, and even useless things. You can browse and open your local files, write a letter, create a database, send an email, play a game, upload a file to your web site, check your diary, and never leave your browser. In fact, your web browser is potentially about as versatile as the actual operating system it’s running on. With a bit of imagination, it’s as if the browser is itself an operating system. Hmm….
Try this. Open a little browser window, grab a folder from anywhere are drag it into your browser. You can happily find any file on your computer like this and open it. Now imagine if the browser had an indexed search system, and if the files were displayed with nicer icons with drop shadows, and were sortable by icon, file type etc; a bit like what, say, OS X looks like. Imagine if you could actually copy and paste files in these windows. Imagine that when you launched the files in these windows they opened, by default, with things like Quicktime, or iTunes over things like, say, Media Player.
Then, once in a while, you may need to update your browser, and you’re usually pointed at a web site once your download is complete to tell you everything is working. I wonder what web site Safari (Windows) might point you at? Oh look! Apple are releasing a new iPod/Notebook/Cheese Grater…
So, while this announcement might seem underwhelming at first, it may be one of the cleverest things Apple have done to increase their profile since the release of iTunes for the PC.
This is all very well and good, I hear you say, but how do you convince 100% of Windows users to change to another browser? Well, that’s the real challenge. But Apple may have a few ways to do this.
1 – Leverage iTunes/iPod/Apple TV/iPhone
Apple may figure out a way of making it advantageous to the owners of iPods/iPhones or users of the iTunes store to have Safari. Maybe the store will become accessible from Safari as well as iTunes, or maybe you’ll be able to browse your iPod playlists from Safari and download other people’s; stuff like that. Bear in mind that the iPhone runs OS X (and indeed Safari), so it stands to reason that there may be some leverage there.
2 – Make it an editor
Netscape tried it years ago with Composer, and it was useful enough for really simple stuff. This is a possibility, and there’s nothing much doing that right now. With .Mac in place already, this could be a very nice way to convince people to move over to Safari.
3 – Add cool functionality
Like the OS type functionality I talked about. Make it cooler to be in Safari than to be in Windows.
3 – Make it really, really good, and really really fast
And to be honest, Safari is pretty fast, though Firefox beats it for features. It won’t be enough that Safari is the best browser around if it doesn’t do something more than that though.
So, though the journos at the Worldwide Developers Conference may have been underwhelmed by the contents of Steve Jobs’ keynote, we may find that Apple’s most powerful weapon of the future won’t be a phone or an OS update, but a humble browser.