worth reading to see into your future.......

WebKit, an open source web browser engine (not a web browser in its own
right but all the parts you'd need to build a web browser), is key to
Apple's vision for devices like the iPhone and the iPod Touch that live
somewhere between computers and phones and define where Apple is headed
with its mobile strategy.

Not much is said about WebKit and this is a surprise to me since it is
such a big hit. Google's Open Handset Alliance Android smartphone
software platform uses WebKit as its web rendering engine, and the open
source KDE and GTK+ projects both use KHTML, on which WebKit was based.

The point of WebKit for Apple was to define an open source standard for
rendering web pages on all sorts of Internet-enabled devices. This also
explains why Apple used KHTML instead of Gecko or its own web engine for
Safari -- even though KHTML was terrible at rendering web pages that
were optimized for Internet Explorer. KHTML is the only rendering engine
that can pass the Acid2 web-rendering test, and following a standard was
more important to Apple than correctly rendering poorly written web
pages.

Which brings us back to the lack of a Flash player or plug-in for the
iPhone, which is the single greatest reason why we do not yet see true
third-party iPhone applications. Had Apple allowed a Flash player on the
iPhone, it risked having Flash -- rather than the Apple-preferred Ajax
-- become the dominant iPhone web application development environment.

Apple sees much of its future in Internet-enabled consumer appliances.
It's the third or fourth rebirth of the whole Network Appliance concept,
only this time mobility and media are added and the mix may finally be
right. But this strategy won't work as well if Apple has to depend on a
third party to bless its platform. These days the options are to embrace
Microsoft (.NET and Silverlight), Sun (Java), or Adobe (Flash), but
Apple wants to control its own destiny, zigging and zagging as it likes
to crush competitors, hence WebKit. It's a huge success for Apple that
people just aren't talking about.

I'm not saying that a Flash player or plug-in won't eventually appear,
but Apple won't allow it to happen until Cupertino feels the
WebKit/iPhone/iPod Touch platform is established well enough to stand on
its own.

The next logical WebKit product for Apple, it seems to me, is a much
larger version of the iPod Touch. It would be Apple's first tablet
computer and, while they'll still claim it runs OS X, Apple WON'T call
it a Mac.

I'm not the only person thinking like this. Here's more from an old
friend who is much smarter than I. He sees an Apple tablet coming in
January for five simple reasons:

1) Because MacWorld in January is when Apple stuns the world with
improvements and innovations. A well-designed tablet could be a great
innovation. An SDK for February 2008, not for just iPhone but for
multi-touch devices in general, including a newly available iTablet--
that would be stunning.

2) Because a multi-touch tablet would provide a patent-protected
interface for a new class of communication and computer device that
Microsoft and its hardware partners would be hard-pressed to clone. The
question now is does one get a Mac or a PC? There would be no PC analog
to a well-designed Mac tablet, so if an iTablet is compelling, the
question then becomes more like, when can I get one?

3) Because a nice form-factor tablet could be a significant addition
to a video-viewing ecosystem. Apple's success in music is not just about
well-designed music players, but the way iPods work with iTunes, and the
fact that people could easily move their CD collections over and play
them on these new portable devices. A nice iTablet could be great for
viewing videos. It's not clear that Apple can build in DVD ripping ala
Handbrake, but if they did (on the legal grounds that people can make a
copy of what they already own, like a CD), then that would be another
significant video ecosystem factor. Add good video-storage options on
local disks, home networks, and "the cloud," sprinkle in the option for
HD viewing, and then mix all that with being able to view videos on
iPods and iPhones, Macs and PCs, big screens via Apple TV, and then
sleek, portable iTablets... Well, then we'll watch the major studios
start to provide their video libraries, all but Disney kicking,
screaming, wringing hands, and gnashing teeth.

4) Because an iTablet with a camera built in could potentially have
the power and bandwidth to enable portable video communication. Video
communication is another ecosystem for which I believe Apple is laying
the groundwork.

5) The fact that an iTablet could be a great e-book reader, too, is
not a driving reason for such a device, I don't believe. But it's a nice
capability. Read the book and watch the movie. Then watch Amazon's new
Kindle go up in flames.

the rest here:

http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2...07_003573.html

-



See More: Apple's Webkit - Food for open source thought.