With yesterday’s Mountain Lion release came the launch of Safari 6.0 for Mac OS X 10.7 Lion and 10.8 Mountain Lion, but it appears that Apple has ceased development of the Windows version of its browser, only providing a 5.1.7 update that fixes a couple of bugs for PC users.
Apple Insider notes that searching for Safari on Apple’s website still brings up a Quick Link reading “Safari for Mac + PC. The fastest, easiest-to-use browser in the world, now available for Mac + PC.”
But, upon clicking that link, visitors are directed to a Safari webpage that describes the latest version of the browser for Mac, but shows no mention of the Windows version.
The lack of Safari 6.0 for PC leaves Windows users without new features such as the unified Smart Search field, Tab View, iCloud Tabs, Sharing, Offline Reading List and improvements for Chinese users.
It is unclear whether or not Apple will release a new version of Safari for Windows, but Google’s free Chrome browser, Mozilla’s Firefox, and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, the already limited demand for Safari on Windows is reducing the need for Apple to for develop it further.
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MacOS10 said on Thu, 26 Jul 2012
Let's not jump to conclusions yet, just because Safari 6 for Windows isn't available on the exact same day as the Mac version!! My guess is it's not as high on Apple's priority list as getting a new Mac OS out the door.
The underlying frameworks that Safari uses (WebKit) will still be required on Windows anyway, as iTunes uses it too for the iTunes Store - so I would say it's most unlikely that Safari will be shelved altogether, it's basically a shiny UI for WebKit so can't involve a huge amount of work to maintain it. Give it a few more days before shouting its demise from the rooftops!!
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