Apple introduced Safari at Macworld San Francisco on January 7, 2003.
Steve Jobs announced Safari as a fast new browser for Mac OS X, presenting it as an alternative to Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape, and Chimera. Apple released a public beta the same day, while Safari 1.0 followed on June 23, 2003.
Safari was built on WebKit, Apple’s browser engine derived from the open-source KHTML project. Its early speed and clean integration with Mac OS X helped it replace Internet Explorer as Apple’s default browser when Mac OS X Panther launched later in 2003.
A common mix-up is confusing Safari’s developer with its underlying technology: Apple developed Safari, but WebKit originated from KHTML code associated with the KDE project. Safari later expanded to the iPhone in 2007 and remains bundled with Apple operating systems.