Apple Releasing a Windows Browser

By JOHN MARKOFF
Published: June 12, 2007
SAN FRANCISCO, June 11 — Apple said Monday that it would make its Safari Web browser available for Windows-based PCs, opening a new front in its rivalry with Microsoft.

The announcement came at the end of a presentation made by Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s co-founder and chief executive, at the company’s annual World Wide Developers Conference. It indicates that Apple is increasingly confident in its ability to compete against Microsoft’s desktop computing monopoly.

Shares of Apple dropped sharply after the announcement, falling $4.30, to $120.19. Several Wall Street analysts said the decline proved that Mr. Jobs was, after all, mortal. In recent years, Apple’s chief executive has refined product announcements into an art form that leaves his audience cheering and then rushing to a store. Wall Street has come to hope that each new event will create a new iPod-style billion-dollar market.

“This was pretty underwhelming,” said Gene Munster, a financial analyst at Piper Jaffray. “He hit a double instead of a homer.”