According to Mike Davis, senior analyst, Ovum, "This approach, while not unexpected, has parallels with Microsoft previously including Internet Explorer and Media Player as part of the Windows operating system. It also provoked anger from John Lilly the CEO of Mozilla, who reportedly accused Apple of undermining 'the security of the whole web'."
Davis further adds that it is the 'domination by default' that marks the release as having the feel of an uncompetitive action, something that Microsoft has been regularly accused of. But maybe, just maybe that is not so bad. I once asked the CEO of a small software vendor, how he would measure success for the business. His reply was, 'when I get an anti-trust law suit'. Apple has already had those regarding iTunes, and getting one for Safari would illustrate that Microsoft's desktop dominance is not guaranteed for perpetuity.
"However, there were a few hiccups for Apple in the rollout. The first being a series of reported crashes of PCs requiring reinstall - although all three in my house went right first time. And then some clever Italians spotted that Apple hadn't updated its End User Licence Agreement (EULA) to reflect the Windows deployment. The text is still saying 'This Licence allows you to install and use one copy of the Apple software on a single Apple-labelled computer at a time'. While a tad embarrassing I am sure Apple's lawyers will charge the company a lot of money for the rewording," added Davis. |
