Have Apple pulled the plug on Safari for Windows?
If you’re reading this post as a Windows user on Apple’s Safari web browser, you may be about to become one of a dying breed; it appears that the Cupertino company have pulled support for the Windows version of their browser.
All references and download links to the Windows version of Safari have seemingly been wiped from the Apple website, just as the company prepare to launch Safari 6 today. While those who delve deep into Apple’s support pages can find a hidden link to May’s 5.1.7 version, Apple look to be wiping out any mention of the browser for Windows users.
So why have Apple done this, if they’ve done it? With just 4.7 percent of the worldwide browser marketshare according to NetMarketShare (with a large portion of that small share likely being down to Safari being the default browser for Macs), Apple likely feel their resources are better spent elsewhere.
“While I find Safari to be an adequate browser for the Mac OS X platform, when it comes to Windows I’d put it behind Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera and even Microsoft’s Internet Explorer,” says Forbes‘ Adrian Kingsley-Hughes.
“In fact, the only time I even fire it up on Windows is when I’m testing something,”
Indeed, Safari is at its best when running inside the OS X ecosystem, what with features like Offline Reading Lists and Password Pane.
Apple are still supporting Webkit development for Windows, with new builds of the open-source framework still landing each night, suggesting the Windows version is simply delayed rather than axed.
But Apple’s deletion of any mention of the Windows software seems to suggest otherwise.
