Apple's Safari web browser remains in third place in terms of adoption, a new study reveals. According to results from the middle of June, Safari usage accounts for approximately 3.4 percent of the market, at 48 million daily users. Mozilla's Firefox is in second place with 227 million users (16.1 percent), while Microsoft's Internet Explorer is by far dominant, with 1.1 billion users (78.3 percent). The only major browser below Safari is Opera, which has 11 million users, or just 0.8 percent.

Safari fares better in terms of security analysis however, as the study notes that between December 2007 and June 2008, Safari users were the second-most likely to use the latest version of their browser, at 65.3 percent. This is considered to be extremely important in terms of security, as browser updates frequently close vulnerabilities that otherwise expose a computer to easy attack.

Internet Explorer is considered the worst threat in this regard, as between January 2007 and June 2008 only 47.6 had the most recent release, to the extent that some users kept IE6 after IE7 became available. By contrast 56.1 percent of Opera users were up-to-date, and Firefox faired the best, with 83.3 percent having the most recent release.

The Safari and Firefox figures are attributed to well-implemented auto-updating mechanisms, which ensure that people receive upgrades shortly after they are posted.