Apple makes Internet browser for Microsoft-based machines

SAN FRANCISCO - Apple on Monday launched a new attack on rival Microsoft, unleashing a Safari web browser intended to dethrone market-ruling Internet Explorer (IE) and be the iPhone gateway to the Internet.

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs unveiled Safari versions for Windows XP or Vista operating systems, as he kicked off a Worldwide Developers Conference that the maker of Macintosh computers holds annually in San Francisco.

"We'd like Safari's market share to grow," Jobs said smiling. "We are bringing all the Safari innovations to Windows. What we've got is the most innovative browser in the world and the fastest browser on Windows."

Microsoft's IE browser is on 78 percent of the world's computers while Safari, made exclusively for Apple's Macintosh machines until Monday, has about five percent of the market, Apple said.

Apple will distribute Safari software as part of its iTunes online store that sells music, movies and other content for the company's globally popular iPod MP3 players, according to Jobs.

"This is a great strategic move by Apple that will push their technology further onto the Windows platform," Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg wrote in posting at his company's website.

Gartenberg said to "expect a response from Redmond," Washington, where technology giant Microsoft is based.

Jobs offered Safari as a compromise to developers pressuring Cupertino, California-based Apple make them privy to iPhones' inner workings so they can customize programs for the devices.

Jobs told developers that Safari is the gateway to the Internet for iPhones and that they can get it from Apple via the Internet.

"You can build custom applications for the iPhone that have the look and feel of the phone," Apple's vice president of iPhone software told the crowd.

The compromise met with cautious enthusiasm by developers.

"The crowd was expecting Apple to open up iPhone for developers," said principal analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group in Silicon Valley.

"Telling them they can get to the iPhone through the browsers is not going to catch their hearts and minds. That might work for amateurs. These guys are professionals."

In a presentation sprinkled with jabs at Microsoft, Jobs showed off the Leopard operating system that will be released in October to replace the OS X "Tiger" platform used on 67 percent of Macintosh computers.

"It's so slick," said software developer Gregory Tong, who came to the event from Sydney were he works for Toshiba. "More people are going to go to Macs."

Jobs said 5,000 people registered for the event making it Apple's most-well attended developers conference.

Leopard features showcased by Jobs include Web Clip that lets users easily create software "widgets" small windows on screens that are continuously updated with information from preferred websites.

"Web Clip is really cool," Jobs said. "You can make a widget out of anything you want on the Internet without any of us."

Leopard's Time Machine backs-up files and lets users recapture information lost or deleted.

Jobs drew laughs with iChat video conferencing software with special effects features from faux back drops to speaking through moving lips superimposed on any chosen picture.

"Imagine all the kinds of people you could have fun with," Jobs said as an Apple vice president's on-camera image changed to a picture of Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer appearing to profess love for "Macs."

"We figured that was the only way we were going to get Steve to join us in one of our keynotes."

Agence France-Presse