Apple Pushes Safari to iTunes and QuickTime Users

March 23, 2008 – 9:46 AM

If you use QuickTime or iTunes on Windows you might have seen something like this lately from your Apple Software Updates applet:

Yes, Apple is pushing the Windows Safari 3.1 browser, recently released in shipping form, to everyone who uses their other Windows software. Many are bothered by this.

I first read about this, before noticing it on my own computer, from the security blogger Jesper Johansson. Jesper complained—somewhat sarcastically I suppose— that Apple was leveraging their de-facto monopoly on MP3 players to break into the Windows browser market. This is actually a perfectly internally logical argument, although I think I know where Jesper is coming from with it.

Then, courtesy of Slashdot, I find out that the CEO of Mozilla is arguing in his own blog that Apple is undermining their relationship with their users by using the software update mechanism—a critical facility—to push new products through.

This “retro-bundling” is not something new for Apple. As Alun Jones has written, and I’ve observed myself, QuickTime users often find themselves with iTunes software on their systems wondering how it got there.

Somehow Apple gets away with it. I guess people think their cool, so they can do whatever they want to your computer. I guess I’m not quite as bothered by this as some others, but I think they should at least default to unchecking the box for Safari in such cases. Incidentally, the notice doesn’t go away. If you uncheck it and quit, the next time you run Apple Software Update it will offer Safari again and check the box by default.

Source: PC Magazine