In the 1980s, the Macintosh made a name for itself by creating a completely new industry: “desktop publishing.” With the advent of WYSIWYG fonts, the LaserWriter printers and Postscript, along with completely new programs like PageMaker, Photoshop, Illustrator, and then QuarkXPress, design and printing departments migrated enthusiastically to Apple’s platform. This creative enthusiasm spilled over into the audio industry, where Macs still reign supreme. Even without Steve Jobs at the helm, life was good.

Then, like the title of the Joseph Heller novel, “Something Happened.” With Windows NT and 95, PCs started catching up. The next-generation OS debacles of the mid-to-late 90s stalled the Mac platform, and while there are many Mac fans – like myself – who grew up with a fierce loyalty to the classic Mac OS, but have nevertheless found enjoyment with Mac OS X, this is not the case for as many publishing houses. While it still does well in this niche, the Mac’s dominance in the field is no longer as massive, if it even exists at all.

What to do? Find another niche, and grab it. What’s that niche? “Web publishing.” I know – this area is pretty established, isn’t it? And, while it probably contains a higher percentage of Mac users than one might think, there’s no way Apple can dominate it, right? Well, maybe not, but I think they want to try. Why? Consider the developments of just the past six months:

In January, Apple announced the release of iWeb . iWeb is a logical move for Apple; iLife has enabled lots of people to create lots of interesting content, whether its photos, movies or music; why not cater to the written word (bloggers), while giving the rest tools for publishing this content online? Yes, iWeb has kinks, some of which have been ironed out, but it’s pretty clear that Apple takes web publishing seriously, when they specifically create an application for it, and bundle it with their flagship consumer suite.

iWeb is nice, but its “hide-the-source” approach and pre-made templates target a specific group; what about those more advanced web developers – the developers who may be using Windows right now? I would argue that Apple’s recent announcements – while quiet, and limited to developer websites – have been even more exciting for them. In January, Apple announced Web Inspector – a slick, integrated inspector for the DOM. Then, word came out that DashCode – ostensibly a tool for the creation of Dashboard widgets, but actually a full-fledged web authoring IDE – was more than just a rumor. Then, just today, Apple programmers announced that Safari nightly builds include Drosera , a JavaScript debugger. It seems like Apple is committed to give web developers using its operating system the best tools for their job.

“But,” I hear you say, “these are all tied into WebKit! WebKit may be a fantastic, rapidly improving rendering engine, but it’s tied to the Mac. Does Apple really expect all web developers to jump ship from Windows? I mean, at the very least, we’ll have to keep our Windows machines around, for compatibility testing!”

Ah ha! But do you? With the move to Intel processors, running Windows on a Mac has never been easier. With Boot Camp , Apple is even providing the tools necessary to do it. Why? Because they recognize the need for certain Windows software. But this software isn’t just Windows applications and games; it’s Windows itself, and more specifically, Internet Explorer. With Boot Camp or a virtualization solution, you’ll be able to do all your web publishing on one slick machine, with the best tools for the job. On one platform, you’ll be able to run every major browser, and use every major web utility or authoring environment.

The end result of this is obvious: Apple knows what its like to lose a coveted niche – pretty soon the company will find out what it feels like to capture one.