February 21, 2023, 7:30 am | Read time: 4 minutes
iPod, iTunes, iPhone, iPad–Apple revolutionized the computer world and the way we navigate the internet today. With its innovative products, the tech company significantly shaped the 2000s. Apple CEO Steve Jobs is considered a guru, a cult figure for all Mac fans. Everything Jobs touches seems to turn to gold. This also applies to the Apple browser Safari, released in 2003–at least that’s what the Apple CEO believes.
At the presentation 20 years ago, no superlative seemed sufficient to celebrate the birth of the Safari browser. It was the best, hottest, and fastest browser out there, and simply great, Steve Jobs announced on January 7, 2003, in his inimitable style.
Overview
In fact, the Apple CEO wasn’t exaggerating much. Safari actually brought websites to the screen significantly faster than its then-largest competitor, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Until Safari’s release, Internet Explorer was also the pre-installed browser on Apple computers, thanks to a 1997 agreement between Microsoft and Apple.
Safari displaces Internet Explorer
A Microsoft browser on an Apple computer did not sit well with Steve Jobs. Therefore, the Apple CEO urged his programmers to develop their own browser. Apple wasn’t just aiming to underscore its reputation as an innovative company. More importantly, since its initial release in 1995, Internet Explorer had become slower with each new version.
Steve Jobs was known for taking unique approaches in developing new products. He did the same with the Safari browser. Instead of using the emerging Gecko engine to render web pages, Apple chose the open-source rendering software KHTML. This decision by Apple caused great surprise in the industry at the time. Yet again, Steve Jobs demonstrated his knack for spotting emerging trends.
Apple later developed KHTML further and named the rendering software WebKit. Today, most browsers on the market use WebKit to display web pages.
How to Find the Right Browser
You can try Windows 3.11 in your browser on this website.
Versions for mobile devices and Windows follow
By the mid-2000s, Safari had become one of the most popular browsers worldwide, which was naturally linked to the rising Apple cult. In 2007, the iPhone was released, along with a mobile version of the browser. Simultaneously, Apple also released a Windows version.
To establish the browser on the competing operating system, Apple used a cunning trick. The Apple-developed QuickTime Player was very popular on Windows computers. When an update for the player was rolled out in 2007, all users also had the Safari browser installed on their hard drives for free.
However, the excitement didn’t last long. In 2008, Google entered the browser business and introduced Chrome. As a result, Safari’s popularity among the internet community plummeted. Apple couldn’t reverse the trend. In 2012, the company discontinued the development of the Safari browser for Windows.
Read also: The Apple Myth around Steve Jobs–stylish, expensive, cult!
Safari evolves into a pure Apple browser
Safari remains the preferred browser on all Apple devices, especially on the iPhone and the iPad, which was added in 2010. No wonder–the browser is pre-installed and cannot be removed. Additionally, Apple has implemented technical measures on its mobile devices to make browsing with other browsers as unattractive as possible.
In recent years, criticism of Safari’s technical development has increased. What frustrates users the most? Major Safari updates are only released with larger operating system updates. Apple remains unfazed by this criticism to this day.
In the battle of the world’s most popular browsers, Safari still plays a significant role, even though it has become much quieter around the Apple browser. Chrome leads the list of the most popular browsers worldwide by a wide margin. Microsoft Edge has now slightly overtaken Safari, pushing it to third place. For every Apple fan, however, Safari remains the best, hottest, and fastest browser ever, true to Steve Jobs’ vision.