Safari’s market share passes 10%, and it deserves it
The release of the lightning fast Safari 4 web browser has pushed Apple’s share of the browser market to above 10% for the first time.
Reports Net Applications (via ITPro UK)
Internet Explorer (IE) retained its dominant position last month, as its average browser share dropped marginally from 68.18 to 68.17 per cent.
Mozilla’s Firefox gained 0.21 per cent to achieve a 21.96 per cent share, and Google’s Chrome grew 0.03 per cent to 1.16 per cent. Opera grew from 0.68 to 0.70 per cent of the market.
But the main change came with Apple’s Safari, after the version 4 beta of the browser was released last week.
The beta release helped push Apple’s browser market share to 10.91 per cent, or 1.88 per cent more than the same time in the week before its release. Last month, it was 9.04 per cent.
The report also said that the Safari 4 beta release grew its share of users by almost 0.5% a day following its release, to 1.04% on day four, or 10 million users, a quicker uptake rate than ever recorded for previous releases for browsers such as IE and Firefox.
As I type this post on my laptop via a reasonably slow 3G modem, I can only say that Safari deserves the share. As we reported initially, Safari 4 is fast, but you don’t notice the difference as much on a highspeed connection. On a slower connection like the one I’m on now, the difference is remarkable. I’m that impressed that it’s now my number one recommended web browser for people on slower connections.
