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Safari market share grows 65%

updated 04:30 pm EDT, Wed July 5, 2006

Safari market share

Apple's Safari Web browser has grown more than 65 percent year-over-year, and still holds the number three spot on Market Share's list of most-used browsers. Safari's market share totaled 1.93 percent in June of 2005, but now amounts to 3.19 percent. Industry experts predict that Apple's recently released Boot Camp software -- which allows Intel Mac owners to boot either Mac OS X or Microsoft Windows -- will draw more consumers as well as business customers to the Mac platform. Safari is considered by some to be a measurement of the world's Mac user base, as Safari is only compatible with Mac OS X which is designed to run exclusively on Apple's Mac hardware.

by MacNN Staff

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cmajma
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jun 2006

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07/05, 04:36pm | report spam | close Reply |
Um...

I know plenty of people that use Firefox, OmniWeb, iCab, Camino, Shiira, Opera, and other browsers that are for Mac. Safari market share is not the Mac market share.

(I personally use Camino)

Will C
Mac Enthusiast

Joined: Jan 2001

0

07/05, 04:50pm | report spam | close Reply |
I know...

..loads of mac users who use IE beause that is all they know. Sad, I know...

e:leaf
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Joined: Mar 2006

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07/05, 04:57pm | report spam | close Reply |
Agreed

I never open Safari anymore.

Safari users != all Mac Users

I also use Camino. Faster and sleeker than Safari.

But if Safari use is at 3.xx%, then the Mac market share is certainly higher.

Saint_Stryfe
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Joined: Jul 2001

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07/05, 05:29pm | report spam | close Reply |
No, that's not quite...

..the point.

If one is Using Safari, it is assumed he must be on Mac Hardware. Thus, a large growth in Safari use is indictivie of a growth in Mac users.

It's a minimum indicator, not a marketshare indicator. Just one happy bit of news: More people are using a web browser we know works only on Macs.

lkrupp
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Joined: May 2001

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07/05, 05:40pm | report spam | close Reply |
Most use Safari...

Typical Mac users are no different than typical Windows users. They use whatever came on their machine, period. Posts extolling the virtues of alternate browsers and how many friends use Firefox or Camino or Opera or whatever mean little. A tiny, small minority of Mac users use alternate browsers. The vast majority stick with what came on the machine, Safari. The growth in Safari usage is indeed a good indicator of what is going on out there. The really good news is that web site developers can no longer ignore OS X and Safari, especially if the numbers get to 5% or better.

kw99
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Joined: Nov 2001

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07/05, 06:30pm | report spam | close Reply |
Agree with e:leaf

That 3.19% number should represent the MINIMUM percentage of computer users on the 'net who are Mac users. Since I'm happily using Panther (10.3.9) on my old G4, and I can't use the latest version of Safari with Panther, I use Shiira (which is basically the latest Safari without the annoying "metal" interface). I also use Camino. My wife uses Tiger, but she prefers the old Mozilla all-in-one suite format, so uses the latest version from the SeaMonkey project.

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/

Contrary to the "you have more software choices with Windows" myth, you have more GOOD choices with Mac OX X, especially when it comes to browsers. So that 3.19% is like to be significantly low.

porieux
Baninated

Joined: Mar 2001

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07/05, 06:46pm | report spam | close Reply |
also

there are still plenty of non-osx mac users out there also.

why not go by the user agent instead of browser???

Okonomiyaki
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Joined: Apr 2003

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07/05, 06:58pm | report spam | close Reply |
Who uses Safari?

For the most part, people who have just gotten their first Mac because that's the default browser. More experienced users may continue to use it as well but many of them will switch to Firefox or Camino. So when Safari usage increases by 65%, it may be an indication of an expanding user base. It's not a 1:1 correlation but it is a strong indication.

- - e r i k - -
Posting Junkie

Joined: May 2001

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07/05, 08:03pm | report spam | close Reply |
Balderdash

I am an advanced user, having used macs since the early nineties and computers in general since the eighties. Plus I'm a web designer for 11 years. I've tried all the "alternative" browsers and I do keep them on hand for testing.

Truth is, Safari is simply the best mac browser at the moment (even better with the latest WebKit builds). It's extensible, fast and renders css better than anyone.

Titanium Man
Forum Regular

Joined: Mar 2001

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07/05, 09:18pm | report spam | close Reply |
Agreed with erik

Camino is not a viable primary browser. It's too light in terms of features. Firefox is good, but still does some distinctly un-Maclike things. Opera is EXTREMELY un-Maclike. It took me days to figure out how to get Opera 9 to open a session of tabs on startup when it forgot the setting while migrating from Opera 8. Omniweb? Is that still around? Shiira? I doubt 99% of Mac users have heard of it. All this "I know tons of people who use other browsers" is hogwash. The browser stats from my websites say otherwise.

WiseWeasel
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Joined: Apr 1999

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07/06, 01:20am | report spam | close Reply |
Safari Best Mac Browser

I'm an experienced user, and Safari is by far the nicest browser for OS X, once you have PithHelmet and Inquisitor installed. After that, going back to any other browser is painful. I use Firefox with Adblock Plus when in Windows for work, but it's nowhere near as nice.

testudo
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Joined: Aug 2001

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07/06, 10:06am | report spam | close Reply |
Comments

Contrary to the "you have more software choices with Windows" myth, you have more GOOD choices with Mac OX X, especially when it comes to browsers. So that 3.19% is like to be significantly low.

Really? Amazing since almost all choices available for the Mac are on windows (the rest being all based on Webkit), and windows has a lot more choices. I don't know how, all of a sudden, mac has more software, or it somehow is better (when most is crappy windows or linux ports).

there are still plenty of non-osx mac users out there also.

So? Who cares. All this article was saying that Safari's internet usage is UP. That's it. Its not saying "This is how many Mac users are in the world".

And, truthfully, it only may mean that "More people are using safari because its finally maturing to where its usable for them", or "Safari is mature enough to work with websites without having to change the user agent"

why not go by the user agent instead of browser??? The user agent is what they're looking at. And this isn't a statistic to see what computers idiots are using, its a statistic to see what browsers people are using. If .05% of the people are using iCab, are you going to be stupid enough to waste your time to make sure your site works with iCab? No. But if you see Safari's percentage growing, you're going to have to realize that your site should start worrying about them as users (unless you run the Windows SuperSite, then you probably could care less).

Who uses Safari?

Well, 3.19% of all internet users?

For the most part, people who have just gotten their first Mac because that's the default browser. More experienced users may continue to use it as well but many of them will switch to Firefox or Camino.

Garbage. That's like saying all those experienced windows users use Firefox, not IE. But then that would imply that most windows users aren't experienced, since IE has such a high user share. So its just another backhanded slap at saying "All windows users are idiots" (which, of course apple does all the time with their commercials).

BTW, keep in mind that these factoids are generally pointless. If all mac users wasted twice as much time on the internet browsing around then windows users (well they've got to do something since they have far fewer games to keep them occupied), right there the numbers would be out-of-whack.

porieux
Baninated

Joined: Mar 2001

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07/06, 02:30pm | report spam | close Reply |
testudo

If you think i'm going to read that nonsense you have another thing coming...

testudo
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Joined: Aug 2001

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07/06, 06:07pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: testudo

If you think i'm going to read that nonsense you have another thing coming...

How can you know its nonsense until you read it?

mikeschr
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Feb 2005

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07/06, 06:57pm | report spam | close Reply |
user agent

The user agent is what they're looking at. No, it's not. The problem with these commercial analyses is that their measurements are based on the browser's acceptance of third-party cookies. Some users, especially of Macs and Firefox, don't allow third-party cookies. If you examine a typical web server's actual logs, you get a slightly different story.

The logs from my web sites, which serve a cross-section of the public, and don't have any techie or OS-slanted tendencies, show Mac users at 6 or 7%, and Safari at 5%. That sounds like a plausible number of Mac users not using Safari.

mikeschr
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Feb 2005

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07/06, 07:13pm | report spam | close Reply |
clarification

What I meant to say is they're looking at some of the user agents, not all of them.

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Safari market share grows 65%

updated 04:30 pm EDT, Wed July 5, 2006

Safari market share

Um...

I know...

Agreed

No, that's not quite...

Most use Safari...

Agree with e:leaf

also

Who uses Safari?

Balderdash

Agreed with erik

Safari Best Mac Browser

Comments

testudo

Re: testudo

user agent

clarification

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Safari market share grows 65%

updated 04:30 pm EDT, Wed July 5, 2006

Safari market share

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Um...

I know...

Agreed

No, that's not quite...

Most use Safari...

Agree with e:leaf

also

Who uses Safari?

Balderdash

Agreed with erik

Safari Best Mac Browser

Comments

testudo

Re: testudo

user agent

clarification

Login Here

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