“On March 18th, Apple released the Safari 3.1 web browser for Windows and the Mac. With the release, Apple also included Safari 3.1 with Apple’s Software Update service on Windows. It was labeled as an update with the option to install pre-selected. The update has been pushed to millions of Windows users of Apple’s other software products, like iTunes. Normally, Apple’s Software Update service is not used for delivery of new products. Clearly, this is a calculated risk by Apple that has annoyed and/or alienated some users,” Net Applications reports.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple has changed the way Safari is displayed within their software update application for Windows. For more, please see Apple changes Apple Software Update for Windows; tags Safari as ‘new’ if not already installed – April 18, 2008
Net Applications continues, “However, the question is, did it work? Did Apple gain browser market share on Windows based on this move? The answer is yes.”
“Safari 3.0 on Windows never gained much market share, peaking at .07%. However, Safari 3.1 on Windows is rapidly gaining market share [0.21%], already tripling Safari 3.0’s peak,” Net Applications reports.
In April 2008, the top 5 operating systems as measured by Net Applications*:
• Windows – 91.99%
• Mac – 7.01%
• Linux – 0.67%
• iPhone – 0.14%
• Playstation – 0.04%
In April 2008, the top 5 browsers as measured by Net Applications*:
• Microsoft Internet Explorer – 76.02%
• Firefox – 16.96%
• Safari – 5.51%
• Opera – 0.65%
• Netscape – 0.53%
*NetApplications: “We use a unique methodology for collecting this data. We collect data from the browsers of site visitors to our exclusive on-demand network of live stats customers. The data is compiled from approximately 160 million visitors per month. The information published is an aggregate of the data from this network of hosted website statistics. The site unique visitor and referral information is summarized on a monthly basis. In addition, we classify 430+ referral sources identified as search engines. Aggregate traffic referrals from these engines are summarized and reported monthly. The statistics for search engines include both organic and sponsored referrals. The websites in our population represent dozens of countries in regions including North America, South America, Western Europe, Australia / Pacific Rim and Parts of Asia.”
More here.
Apple Safari Web browser for Windows:
Direct link via YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIYcmPN-jvE
HAH!!! Suck on that, errrr…….ummm….Windoze dorks!
I can understand the negative reaction to the initial stealth Safari installation on Windows. So, now that Apple f”fixed” it, why do people still complain?
Just because Safari’s been installed, doesn’t mean it’ll ever get used.
Obviously it does get used.
At least Safari doesn’t require the infinite loop of restarts like most Winblows installs.
After trying Safari on Windows, I’m hooked. It looks WAY better than Mozilla Firefox………
Anything to dislodge that crap browser IE from the thrown is welcome news to me. IE makes baby jesus cry!
Wasn’t 3.0 labeled a beta release? If so, that might have had something to do with it as well (probably not as much as the “stealth” installation, though).
And party.
Safari is a great browser… I never understand why the PC crowd degrades the web by using internet explorer….. useless jerry-rigged browser!
Ooops.
@ zippy
“Anything to dislodge that crap browser IE from the thrown is welcome news to me.”
I think you meant “throne” and not “thrown”. You’re welcome.
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If they really want this browser to take off, they should make it an entry door to the web and therefore provide some web services along with it:
– a free version of .Mac, or if not free, at least cheaper and highly integrated to iPhone, and iPod Touch
– an entry door to iTunes
– an entry door to AppStore
– an entry door to all kind of Apple products…
Hopefully this puts a muzzle on the people who were crying “ZOMG! Safari stealth install! EVIL!!!!” – yes, hysterical Mozilla people, I’m looking at *you*. I love your browser and use it almost 100% of the time, but honestly, dial down the doomsday rhetoric on Apple here, will ya?
If this had been a real “stealth” install, Safari would be sitting on these peoples’ hard drives, unused. Clearly, instead, people saw the option for Safari in Software Update, installed it, deliberately went to use it, and (at least for the short term) are continuing to use it in significant numbers – exactly as Apple intended.
Apple wasn’t targeting the folks who are already smart enough to download and use an alternative web browser. Apple’s real target here was Windows users who don’t really know that “the internet” is something they can get to without clicking on that blue “e” icon – the everyday Windows users who would never browse the web with anything other than IE unless given a gentle nudge.
So relax Mozilla people, Apple is promoting their more standards-compliant web browser to get people off that archaic Microsoft browser. This is a *good* thing for web standards, it will *help* Mozilla in the long run. Mozilla lost a lot of respect from me with their childish reaction to Apple’s tactics on this.
And as you can guess from MDN not reporting Mac OS share and Safari browser share this month – yes, these are declining.
http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=9
http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=5
Paraphrasing the usual MDN Take to describe the current trend:
As always, the actual percentage numbers are not as important as the trends shown. The trend shows Apple descending.
correction ‘share trend’ not ‘share’:
And as you can guess from MDN not reporting Mac OS share and Safari browser share trends this month – yes, these are declining.
@little man,
No. Version 2 was the Windoze beta. Version 3 was primetime.
Were I still employed with the Feds (I left after 30 years), I wouldn’t be *allowed* to install this. At the Service, only IE was permitted under Windows. Now I install what I want. Very liberating.
I tried Safari 3 for about a week and couldn’t take it. I went back to Firefox 3 afterwards. About the only good thing I could find about it was that it did a much better job blocking pop-ups. Everything else was either inferior or still required some debugging.
@Anders
I looked at the OS share report, and the trend from the previous few months shows OS X and iPhone more or less flat – not declining, as you indicate.
April’s numbers are, at this point, a statistical anomaly. If May’s numbers are similar to April’s, then we have a trend. But currently, we don’t.
MW: looked, as in yes, I actually looked.
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@Anders
May be many Windows users were liberated by Safari for Windows and now surfing on internet more than ever…
@racecar
Firefox is full of bugs and was hard to use….. (see how we feel?)
Give us some content, what about Safari needs debugging? what is inferior? Examples please.
Safari is the best, period.
@fatal
I had a lot of issues with pages using JavaScript. For instance, There is a page that I do some college coursework on that just wouldn’t function. I had to switch back to Firefox to get it functioning correctly.
I had issues when I visited certain sites where text would overlap, unintentionally, with images (the one major time was when I visited Adobe.com). This incident seemed somewhat isolated. It would bug out on my work computer, but not on my home computer. Still, it was consistent.
There’s no drop-down navigation menu. This may just seem like individual preference (and perhaps it is), but those of us used to navigating with it in BOTH IE and Firefox are left wanting.
In a lot of cases I found the fonts to be a little strange. Fuzzy.
Every time I right-click to open a link in a new tab/window, it highlights the whole link. What for?
For all the talk of people’s Firefox bugs, I must never be doing the same things as they are. I never seem to come across them, the exception being when I’m using the beta versions like I am right now. Even still, I have a much better browsing experience.
The funny thing is, I actually like using Safari when I’m on a Mac. For some reason, the experience just isn’t the same on Windows.
What a useless graph!
OK, the lowest data value is 0.
And the highest? There’s no value at all.
The graph was probably done in Numbers – looks good, but is useless!
@racecar
I can see a few JavaScript problems but not what you are discribing. I’ve always have it work.
I’ve had no problems with webpages in Safari for windows unless of course the page isn’t standards compliant.
I can see how the drop down navigation would be helpful but then again I’m use to typing until the autocomplete shows the right address so It’s no big deal to me.
As for the smoothing of text I love it always hated those small, thin, pixelated, and basically unrendered letters in widows how IE and FireFox show them. Now I can actually see the text how it was meant to be, yay. Then again I’m a web designer I love it to look how I designed it and no different. Fonts and font smoothing for windows, in my opinion, need serious help.
@Cubert – Thanks!