Apple doubled its presence on the Windows platform Tuesday when it released a Windows-compatible version of its Safari Web browser. Released as a public beta, the final version of Safari 3 will run on both Windows and Mac OS X 10.5.

Safari will sport the same features regardless of what platform it appears on. Apple CEO Steve Jobs told Worldwide Developers Conference attendees that the Windows version of Safari 3 has the same technology as the Leopard edition, including built-in Google and Yahoo search capabilities.

Apple decided to make Safari a cross-platform application to boost the Web browser's market share. According to figures cited by Jobs, Safari currently captures about 5 percent of the browser market; Microsoft Explorer commands 78 percent of the market while Mozilla's Firefox has a 15-percent share.

Apple promises a speedy version of Safari for Windows. The company says that Safari performed an iBench HTML performance suite test twice as fast as Microsoft's Internet Explorer -- 2.2 seconds to IE's 4.6 seconds. The Apple-built browser turned in similar performance on iBench's Javascript test, completing the suite in less than a second compared to IE's 2.4-second time.

Safari is the second Apple program to make the leap over to Windows; the company also produces a Windows-compatible version of its iTunes music application.