Another good analysis on Apple's Safari-for-Windows move

Can you tell I've been trolling the ZDNet blogs today? Here's another analysis of Apple's Safari-for-Windows announcement, this one from Alan Graham of ZDNet's Web 2.0 Explorer blog.

Among the things coming out of Safari for Windows, Graham cites a growing market share for Safari, a revitalization of QuickTime as a video medium of the Web (sorry, Steve Jobs, that ship has sailed, and the name on its backside is "Flash") and the (to me puzzling) connection between Safari and the nascent iPhone platform.

Here's his take on the iPhone connection (go to the whole item for the rest):

We know that Apple is releasing a Safari/webdev kit so developers can develop web apps for (the iPhone). Why limit this to Mac developers? The phone is obviously designed to appeal to Mac and Windows users, so to ensure development for the phone on the Windows side, they need a platform to build on. Safari will no doubt be the major component that ties the phone and iTunes together, and we’ll likely see an explosion of web app development this fall after the phone is released. Windows support is crucial to their long-term phone strategy and that is especially important when it comes to browsing. Just look at all the sites that are popping up to work with the Wii…I have no doubt in my mind we’ll see lean and mean Safari sites for the iPhone.

Apple does have some great programmers, and maybe they can turn Safari into something that has value for both Windows and Mac users. I still think that Mac OS X is one of the best GUIs out there (based on BSD for those who care to know, so it's directly comparable, in my mind, with all the Linux/BSD GUIs out there, including KDE and GNOME). If Cupertino can innovate in the browser space, it can and will bring more people to OS X and the Mac platform.

And the development of Safari will answer, again, whether or not the iPod was a lucky hit for Apple, or the result of great minds making great products. We'll see, won't we?