Apple Aims Browser at Rival

Jun 12, 06:37 AM

Current Headlines: By Clint Swett, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

Jun. 12--SAN FRANCISCO-Opening another front in its battle with Microsoft Corp., Apple Inc. on Monday said it would make its highly praised Safari Web browser available to Windows users.

In announcing the move to modify Safari for Windows XP and Vista, Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs said he hopes to chip away at Microsoft's estimated 78.7 percent share of the browser market.

"We would love for the Safari market share to grow," Jobs told a cheering audience at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference here. He said tests show that Safari runs about twice as fast as Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser. A beta version of Safari for Windows is available at www.apple.com/safari.

But analysts said the move went beyond the browser market and was aimed at getting more Windows users to experience the vaunted look and feel of Apple products.

"This could get more people to take a look at the Macintosh," said Tim Bajarin, president of the Silicon Valley consulting firm Creative Strategies.

Still, Wall Street seemed disappointed that Jobs didn't show off any flashy new products, as he often does at such events. The company's stock, which had been soaring on optimistic iPhone sales forecasts, slid $4.30 on the Nasdaq Monday to close at $120.19. It later regained $1.21 in after-hours trading.

Though profits have soared thanks to sales of its computers and iPod music players, Apple has only a 4.9 percent share of the U.S. personal computer market, according to IDC, a market research firm.

Safari wouldn't be the first piece of Apple software to find a home on Windows machines. An estimated 90 percent of the 300 millions copies of iTunes software downloaded worldwide runs on Windows computers.

The Safari announcement came toward the end of a 90-minute presentation by Jobs that included showing off 10 improvements of Apple's new operating system, code-named Leopard, which is due for an October launch.

A midyear release was delayed while Apple put more resources into readying the iPhone, a combo smart phone and iPod that is to hit store shelves June 29.

In his speech at the Moscone West convention center, Jobs encouraged the developers in the audience to write their own software for the iPhone. Much of it could be based on Safari -- which iPhone will use as its Web browser -- and other programming tools, Jobs said.

Experts said that such third-party software could enhance the long-term appeal of the device by providing it with more capabilities than Apple engineers alone could supply.

Rather than new gadgets, Leopard got most of the time and attention in Jobs' presentation.

Among the new features he demonstrated were a new way to organize the desktop, a simple means to automatically back up the computer's data and a way to easily preview what's on a file without launching the file's software.

He also showed off a series of flashy features being added to iChat, the company's video instant messaging software.

The upgrades, coupled with the Safari announcement, intensify the competition between Apple and Microsoft, whose new Vista OS, launched in January, emulates many of the Macintosh's most popular features.

Van Baker, an analyst for Gartner Inc., a market research company, said that while Vista narrowed the gap in security, aesthetics and consumer-friendly features, Leopard will likely widen it again.

"Apple is bringing out a new set of features, so they are just raising the bar for everyone," Baker said.

Other efforts to lure Windows users include the bundling of "Boot Camp" software in the Leopard operating system, allowing Macs equipped with Intel chips to run Microsoft's Windows XP and Vista operating systems.

And in an appeal to computer gamers, who are solidly in the Windows camp, Apple said software giant Electronic Arts will begin offering its wildly successful Madden football and Tiger Woods golf games at the same time they are released for Windows computers.

Other games EA will release for Mac include "Command & Conquer 3," "Battlefield 2142" and "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix."

While those titles alone aren't likely to get legions of gamers to switch their allegiance to the Macintosh, they could prompt some fence-sitters to consider Apple products. "Getting EA is a great vote of confidence for Apple," Bajarin said.

Just last month, Jobs and Microsoft founder Bill Gates appeared together in a cordial and nostalgic discussion about technology and its future.

But as is typical of Jobs' appearances before Apple loyalists, on Monday, he took plenty of time to poke fun at his Redmond, Wash., rival. In a takeoff of the "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" TV commercial, the PC character, dressed in Jobs' trademark jeans and black turtleneck, said he was resigning because Leopard was overshadowed by the "tens of dozens of copies" of Vista that Microsoft has sold.

Job later mocked Microsoft's decision to sell Vista in four different versions, ranging from $199 to $399. He jokingly announced the same four versions of Leopard, all priced at $129.

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