Safari triples market share

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Microsoft's share of the Web browser market appears in slow decline, while Safari adoption continues to climb, according to OneStat.com. Apple continues to benefit from the collective trend among technology users to search for alternatives to Microsoft products. Safari usage has climbed 0.23 per cent from 0.48 to 0.71 per cent since January 2004. Safari held 0.25 per cent of the market in July 2003 – Apple has almost tripled its browser market share.

In July last year the analysts reported that various iterations of Microsoft's Internet Explorer held a total global usage share of 95.4 per cent. That has fallen to 93.9 per cent, OneStat.com reported May 28. Microsoft continues to dominate the market. This news confirms that Mac users continue to migrate to Safari, and also reflects continuing adoption of Mac OS X, which is required to run Apple's Mac-only Web browser. Microsoft intends ceasing development of independent browsers for Windows at some future point, allegedly preferring to add Web browsing as a part of future operating system, Longhorn. Internet Explorer 6.0 continues to dominate the Web, maintaining 69.3 per cent of the market.

News source: Macworld | UK

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(16 replies) #1 Daedalus on 01 Jun 2004 - 19:39

IE on the Mac is old and lacks new features, however could the increase in Safari usage have something to do with the fact that it is the new default browser in Mac OSX Panther? Personally, I like Camino...

#1.1 pHuzi0n on 01 Jun 2004 - 19:53

IE on any platform is old and lacking new features. It'll get a slight update (popup blocking) in XP SP2 but it will remain archaic.

#1.2 chacho on 01 Jun 2004 - 19:54

QUOTE (#1.1)

and XPSP2 wont help the mac version...

#1.3 nmarsh1 on 01 Jun 2004 - 20:01

QUOTE

It'll get a slight update (popup blocking) in XP SP2 but it will remain archaic.

IE User to Firefox user: I keep getting all these popups!

Firefox user to IE user: What's a popup?

#1.4 Neb Okla on 01 Jun 2004 - 20:20

QUOTE (#1.3)

nmarsh1 said:
IE User to Firefox user: I keep getting all these popups!

Firefox user to IE user: What's a popup?

...because it's so hard to download any one of the myriad toolbars for IE that block pop-ups.

Hell, most net-novices I know have 5 or 6 toolbars running. No way a pop-up is getting through that.

#1.5 Mav Phoenix on 01 Jun 2004 - 20:28

A lot of those toolbars cause their own popups and are loaded with spyware.

#1.6 Jason on 01 Jun 2004 - 21:53

I am using XP SP2 what is a pop up ?

#1.7 nmarsh1 on 01 Jun 2004 - 22:19

Not sure, do you know what tabs are?

#1.8 Sushubh on 02 Jun 2004 - 01:56

i run opera, u guys ever heard abt mouse gestures?

please leave out the crap. its a news about safari which is a pretty decent browser. the frist ever i believe to support text shadows

#1.9 STV on 02 Jun 2004 - 04:09

tabs are not for everybody. i like to use tabs in visual studio.net, but for a web browser i think it is not a "needed" feature. plus is microsoft were to add tabbed browsing, people would say that they are copying other browsers.

STV

#1.10 aristotle-dude on 02 Jun 2004 - 04:29

QUOTE (#1.6)

Wow aren't you cool. Running pre-release software.

I hope that is your home machine and not some corporate desktop.

#1.11 Sushubh on 02 Jun 2004 - 04:53

yeah as if they never copy anything

!!!
ever checked their msn toolbar

#1.12 tapo on 02 Jun 2004 - 05:02

Well, tabbed browsing is seen as a needed feature now, and nobody would think they "copied". I mean, they already copied Netscape, didn't they?

Besides, Mozilla copied it from Opera, Firefox copied it from Mozilla, Camino copied it from Mozilla, Safari copied it from Camino... and you also gotta add in the IE frontends, like Avant and MyIE2, though I havn't used them (and refuse to. damn IE dosn't support standards....)

(To the Safari fanboys, Safari did copy it from Camino. They both have the same creator, Dave Hyatt.)

#1.13 em_te on 02 Jun 2004 - 05:28

IE on the Mac surprisingly has features that IE on Windows doesn't have. E.g., Download Manager, Scrapbook, Page Holder, vertical toolbars.

#1.14 Sushubh on 02 Jun 2004 - 07:31

lets correct that!

STILL does not have...

after so many years!

#1.15 Jason on 02 Jun 2004 - 08:22

WTF its got to do withyou where I am allowed to try out XP SP2 ?

#1.16 Neb Okla on 02 Jun 2004 - 14:02

QUOTE (#1.5)

Mav Phoenix said:
A lot of those toolbars cause their own popups and are loaded with spyware.

Well you can only protect users from them selves to the extent that they permit it.

The major pop-up blocking toolbars don't cause their own pop-ups.

Google, A9, MSN, Yahoo, etc.

And as for spyware, that depends on your definition of spyware.

Some would call A9 spyware because of it's Alexa integration.

(3 replies) #2 nuka_t on 01 Jun 2004 - 19:44

wow, IE is losing market share fast. nly 69 percent. w00t. go firefox.

#2.1 Jason on 01 Jun 2004 - 19:49

Internet Explorer version's currently hold 93.9 percent combined and who mentioned firefox ?

#2.2 DsnBehind on 01 Jun 2004 - 19:52

1. Microsoft IE 6.0 69.3%
2. Microsoft IE 5.5 12.9%
3. Microsoft IE 5.0 10.8%

Great job on reading the article.

#2.3 Ehrihk on 01 Jun 2004 - 23:16

You must have just whipped through the article. Did you get a little excited about posting?

(2 replies) #3 DsnBehind on 01 Jun 2004 - 19:54

From 10 to 30!

^Joke^

#3.1 nmarsh1 on 01 Jun 2004 - 19:57

Great joke.

Personally, I think Safari blows. Camino and Firefox mac are much better browsers even in Beta-pre-1.0 form.

#3.2 tapo on 02 Jun 2004 - 04:51

Safari is pretty good, but I've switched to Firefox on my Mac.

If there's anything I loved about safari, it's the activity window. Shows you everything the page is loading (including embedded stuff like swf and mov files) and the status of that specific thing, and you can cancel any specific one if you want to.

I wish that was in Firefox. I added a bugzilla report, and it was classified a dupe, so obviously someone else wants it too. I hope it makes it in before Firefox 1.0 (I'm using the nightlies thanks to the awesome program FireFix, and it isn't in yet.)

(1 reply) #4 nmarsh1 on 01 Jun 2004 - 19:54

Now everyone, please, bow your heads and pretend to be serious...

Microsoft rulezzz! #1 USA!

Internet Explorer, rock me like a huricane!

#4.1 Surr3al on 02 Jun 2004 - 14:59

Safari's coming up strong, omg watch out!

(4 replies) #5 chacho on 01 Jun 2004 - 19:56

well, at least we've beaten IE 4.0!

#5.1 Neb Okla on 01 Jun 2004 - 20:22

QUOTE (#5.0)

chacho said:
well, at least we've beaten IE 4.0!

Kind of makes you wonder about IE alternatives that don't.

And you said "we" - so you wrote Safari?

#5.2 Mav Phoenix on 01 Jun 2004 - 20:30

^No, Mac users are like a collective.

#5.3 aristotle-dude on 02 Jun 2004 - 04:31

So what's up with the bill gates borg pictures all over the web and the borg-like mentality of some windows users then? Some people get all upset that not everyone is running IE and windows.

#5.4 gawdflesh on 02 Jun 2004 - 11:05

You don't see most Windows users referring to everything Microsoft does as "we", do you? No, of course not, because it's not some stupid club. But others seem to feel the need to belong to something, I suppose.

(2 replies) #6 oik on 01 Jun 2004 - 20:14

microsoft's only losing steam because they aren't updating. if they had followed everybody else and put in tabs and an ad-blocker, i think everybody would be a little happier. on the mac system, there's no question microsoft is losing browser dominance... they stopped developing it entirely. now it's between omniweb and safari and firefox.

#6.1 Mav Phoenix on 01 Jun 2004 - 20:33

I wonder if they're afraid of the DOJ if they make IE better? I wonder if they signed some sort of agreement.

#6.2 Sushubh on 02 Jun 2004 - 01:57

and opera 7.50

(1 reply) #7 kwyjibo on 01 Jun 2004 - 20:45

We have been here before. Microsoft had their wrist slapped for attempting to make IE an ingrained part of Windows. It still is, but their plan to make it even more embedded in the future, rather than have a downloadable version is just repeating history. That doesn't sound like fair play with Firefox.

#7.1 Surr3al on 02 Jun 2004 - 15:00

Word to your mutha ^^

They are going to get governmentally pwned yet again.

#8 Magallanes on 01 Jun 2004 - 20:50

Iexplorer 90%
Safari 1%
Another 9%

Error Margin > 4%

:-P

(3 replies) #9 episode on 01 Jun 2004 - 20:56

Triple their market share from .25%. Wow. Thats .75%. No one cares about percentages that small, they are unimportant.

#9.1 Sushubh on 02 Jun 2004 - 01:58

not if we only consider mac os users.

#9.2 tapo on 02 Jun 2004 - 05:10

Exactly.

Besides, you gotta figure in that people use more then one browser. I'm part of that 93% because occasionally I use IE, because I'm forced to, or because some stupid site incompatibilities.

Other browsers, believe it or not, matter. And any good webmaster should take web standards into account when designing a site, not just IE "standards". Hell, if you want to, make your website not support Internet Explorer. People with IE can get Firefox. People on Macs or Linux can't get IE.

Sidenotes:

1. IE for mac uses the Tazman rendering engine, completely different from IE for Windows. Sites designed for Windows IE don't necessarily work on Mac IE.

2. Incompatibilities isn't a hard word to say, but it sure has a lot of letters. Maybe I'm only noticing it because it's 1:09 AM and I have nothing useful or interesting to do.

#9.3 Sushubh on 02 Jun 2004 - 07:32

gotta give credit to tantek and company

(2 replies) #10 okashi on 01 Jun 2004 - 20:58

I, for one, am very happy that a browser is included with windows. It would be a pain to download Firefox otherwise.

#10.1 Knight' on 01 Jun 2004 - 21:06

lol i've never thought about it that way before!

#10.2 JaggedFlame on 01 Jun 2004 - 21:10

Yeah. That's because the numerous times we have told you that, you just act like a fanboy.

#11 MadDog on 01 Jun 2004 - 21:09

"Microsoft's share of the Web browser market appears in slow decline..." That coming from the most unbiased news source (MacWorld) possible.

Not too many places to go when you're already at the top!

(1 reply) #12 Danrarbc641 on 01 Jun 2004 - 21:29

There is a site that'll show you a picture of what a webpage looks like Safari as well, something like 50,000 uses of it so far. That can definately have an effect on the number of Safari hits a website sees.

#12.1 Sushubh on 02 Jun 2004 - 02:00

http://www.danvine.com/icapture/

so microsoft should fear this site for their browser share?

#13 Rudy on 01 Jun 2004 - 21:36

im sorry but u can say it tripled but it pretty easy to triple, i mean they only gained like 0.48% so i dont think its a big deal at all

(1 reply) #14 Huezo on 01 Jun 2004 - 21:40

I used to be a Firefox fanboy until I got a Mac and used Safari.
Go Safari!

#14.1 nmarsh1 on 01 Jun 2004 - 21:46

So now youre a Safari fanboy???

(4 replies) #15 Shining Arcanine on 01 Jun 2004 - 22:21

Longhorn will change this.

#15.1 pixlnet on 01 Jun 2004 - 23:35

Why would it change this? IE hasn't seen very many changes lately. Whenever you dominate a market you stop innovating. Windows, Office, IE are all examples of this. The only reason Microsoft is doing an overhaul of Windows is because now there is something better than Windows that is much more powerful. I think we all know what I'm referring to....

#15.2 aristotle-dude on 02 Jun 2004 - 04:34

Yeah, it will turn even more people off IE.

#15.3 JaggedFlame on 02 Jun 2004 - 13:36

What kind of logic is that? There's something better than IE right now that is much more powerful, too.

#15.4 Surr3al on 02 Jun 2004 - 14:57

Yay, so we wait 2 years for some revolutionary new browser that gets hijacked as soon as we browse the internet.

(1 reply) #16 MitchShrader on 01 Jun 2004 - 22:28

its a moot point whether the imitation browsers actually are gaining market share, or M$ is just not bothering to add tabs and serious popup blocking to ALLOW some faint pretense of non-monopoly dominance. Does anyone think that 85%+ of the PC (forget macs for a minute, they don't RUN windows) market isn't dominance? And how long exactly would it take to add tabs to IE? If and when it seems necessary? I use crazybrowser, works fine, don't have popups. it's faster and more stable than firefox but more to the point, i don't NEED anything else. including nightly builds and a godforsaken unending list of plugins. tisn't i think it's best, tisn't i like ms, its pure lack of desire to waste time fixing what aint broke.

#16.1 Jugalator on 01 Jun 2004 - 22:51

including nightly builds and a godforsaken unending list of plugins

It's not like anyone is shoving them down your throat, though.

The nightlies are not for everyone, and that also goes with pretty much all plugins. They're just there as options if you have special needs.

I don't really care what browser you use, just thought it was weird that you seemed to use nightlies and plugins as negative things. Wouldn't it be worse if people couldn't extend their feature set if they wished to?

(1 reply) #17 ZTrang on 02 Jun 2004 - 00:53

This is interesting: however wrote the article failed to mention that usage of IE 6 actually GREW from 68.1% to 69.3%. So, apparently, Microsoft is only losing ground on Macs, and, frankly, they don't care. Microsoft doesn't make money off of Macs. Macs are not a primary market for Microsoft. As long as their PC market is growing (and how can it not; IE is a staple of Windows XP), Microsoft is happy. The article makes it seem like soon, nobody anywhere will use Internet Explorer.

#17.1 markjensen on 02 Jun 2004 - 01:15

Funny, but when I read the article, that was the very first fact that mentioned any sort of change was

Microsoft's IE 6 global usage has increased with 1.2 percent from 68.1 percent to 69.3 percent since July 2003.

There was only one fact before that, in the first sentence, that established IE's 93.9% dominant market share.

(1 reply) #18 jesterzwild on 02 Jun 2004 - 03:05

As long as IE is the default browser on Windows-based PC's -- take note of the wording, it is possible for vendor's to change the default -- IE will continue to have a dominant market share. Keep in mind that each year more people become computer users (regardless of platform/OS) and an increasing number of people have multiple systems (that may run different browsers on different OS's), not to mention those of us who switch between browsers to test web page/site development.

Safari market share is increasing partially due to non-OS X Mac users finally upgrading to said OS version. Many of these users were also IE5 users who now don't have that option. Safari is now a default on OS X; the "default browser" syndrome on Windows applies here as well.

#18.1 tapo on 02 Jun 2004 - 05:16

Exactly. People started using Safari when it was first released, but it really took off when it became the default browser in Panther. Same with Internet Explorer and Windows 98.

Internet Explorer isn't a great browser in many respects, it's just the default. And when something's the default, and it works, people will use it. This is also how Windows became dominant, by being preinstalled (whereas you had to buy and install OS/2).

(2 replies) #19 trpn on 02 Jun 2004 - 03:16

I just hope the rise in safari makes a push for web developers to also support khtml (safari uses khtml right?). There are still a few pages that don't render well in konqueror and I would like that problem to go away!

#19.1 tapo on 02 Jun 2004 - 04:56

Yes, Safari uses KHTML for rendering. As of Safari 1.1, they made a few tweaks to include a LOT of compatibility fixes, and I think they're in KDE 3.2 (Not sure, I'm a Gnome fanboy.)

#19.2 jesterzwild on 02 Jun 2004 - 06:38

The push shouldn't be for web developers to support KHTML, it should be for the KHTML rendering engine to better support web standards (which it already does a rather good job of). Supporting specific rendering engines should never be the concern of a web developer (we've already been down that road, let's not travel it again).

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