Jackson Miller

Why would Apple release Safari for Windows? James Robertson has an interesting idea:

All by itself, Safari for Windows makes little sense. However, as a port test for Cocoa and Apple’s libraries, it makes a lot of sense.

When I first heard the Safari on Windows news I thought “sure, Apple is trying to attract the developers”. That is a pretty classic move. I was thinking web application developers, but now I am not so sure.

I don’t think Apple is trying to attract new Cocoa developers either. I think they are going to be the ones to make JavaScript desktop applications a legitimate exercise. Or at least that is what they are going to try to do. Like quite a few Apple innovations lately, desktop applications written with JavaScript was first seen on KDE. I don’t think it every really took off, but I remember quite a bit of discussion of developing KDE apps/utilities with EMCA script.

This actually makes a little sense. When Jobs announced an AJAX development toolkit for the iPhone he was careful to not describe it as a web-application toolkit. Maybe he is talking about installable AJAX applications that have the OSX look and feel, but run inside the Safari engine. Of course, Safari is built on webkit which does have it’s roots in KDE. (You see how it all comes together?)

By bringing Safari to Windows there could be a single development platform for creating Windows, OSX, and mobile (iPhone) applications. While Adobe and Microsoft won’t be moving their main products over to a Safari development platform anytime soon, all the ISV shops very well may love the idea.

So riddle me this, will this new Safari AJAX toolkit have access to CoreAnimation? What about CoreData? Will there be local storage for caching? Will the apps run locally only going out to the web when they need new information? Will the applications be able to auto-update to new versions of the software with a simple HTTP request the next time the app is started and an internet connection is available? Will the apps be able to run in offline mode? Could a Safari AJAX development platform really provide the best of both worlds?

What about Google? Could Google be planning to roll out offline versions of some of their apps using this new Safari AJAX toolkit? How would that affect iWork? Could this have anything to do with GMail now having PowerPoint previews?

Wanna know why Flash is not going to be on the iPhone? Apple is planning for Safari to kick Flex’s ass. With the release of Safari on Windows they are setting their eyes on Silverlight as well.

Maybe, just maybe, I spoke too soon and maybe Nick will be able to get excited about iPhone development.