April Browser Stats: Safari Triples its Windows Market Share
And so April 2008 has come to an end, which means it’s time to take a look at how the browsers stack up against each other once again. Who’s rising, who’s falling, and who can’t catch a break? I think some of the stats might surprise you!
For starters April is the first full month where we can really see the effect of Apple pushing Safari onto Windows users. We checked up on Safari’s usage stats at the beginning of April, but it didn’t show anything too impressive. Now Net Applications, the stats provider, actually breaks down Safari usage according to the Windows version. And the verdict is… Safari 3.1 for Windows had a 0.07% market share in March 2008 and it jumped to 0.21% in April 2008! Sure it’s not a huge jump, but they tripled their market share in one month.
Despite Safari’s small surge on Windows it still wasn’t able to catch a break. Actually, Internet Explorer is the one that takes the crown this month:
| March 2008 | April 2008 | Change | |
| Internet Explorer | 74.80% | 76.02% | +1.22% |
| Firefox | 17.83% | 16.96% | -0.87% |
| Safari | 5.82% | 5.51% | -0.31% |
| Opera | 0.69% | 0.65% | -0.04% |
| Netscape | 0.55% | 0.53% | -0.02% |
| Mozilla | 0.09% | 0.14% | +0.05% |
| Playstation | 0.04% | 0.04% | 0.00% |
| Opera Mini | 0.04% | 0.04% | 0.00% |
| Pocket IE | 0.03% | 0.03% | 0.00% |
| Konqueror | 0.03% | 0.03% | 0.00% |
I’m just as ready as you are for the dethroning of Internet Explorer, but it’s not going to happen with months like these! Luckily the folks over in Europe are moving forward quite nicely with Firefox’s market share approaching 29%. Go Firefox!
Don’t forget to look at our overview of past browser stats.
Thanks to Mohan for the tip on Firefox’s stats in Europe
Image via Flickr
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Tags: Firefox, Freeware, Software, Browser, Internet Explorer, Netscape, Opera, Safari
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“I’m just as ready as you are for the dethroning of Internet Explorer,”
Then why the hell do you make posts about features IE has? Why do you tell people tips and tricks for IE? What’s that going to do other than potentially convince people to go back to IE or just stay on IE?
You probably want to stay un-biased…but that ship’s sailed. You’re already obviously biased about Fx, so stick with it!
Just wait for Firefox 3
Even good ol’ Netscape, for which support has ended, has a bigger market share than Safari. HAH!
INTERNET EXPLORER RULES!!!!!!!!! FIREFOX WILL NEVER BE ON TOP INTERNET EXPLORER!!!!!!
“I’m just as ready as you are for the dethroning of Internet Explorer, but it’s not going to happen with months like these!”
I agree with the first comment. In order to maintain your blog bias free, stick to evaluating objectively rather than subjectively. Remember that you guys just switched over to macs from being purely windows oriented, which may act against you given comments like these. I have read previous stories you have posted on your blog regarding browser wars and never have you said that you were ready for the dethroning of ie, though ironically, after getting macs your subjective point begins to creep out?? In order to maintain your base, do not become a fanboy of either system and instead focus, as you did before, on evaluating objectively.
I agree that Fx3 should help Firefox a lot to grow further. What a difference with Fx2!
Just because we favor one app over another doesn’t mean that we can’t recognize good features in other browsers. While it would be easy to push our browser of choice on our readers that’s not what we’re here to do. Our goal, as with anything we review, is to give you the facts as well as our thoughts and let you make the judgement call. Yes, I am ready for Internet Explorer to go down like the Titanic, but that doesn’t mean it’s right for everyone to jump ship. Use what fits your needs best.
At the same time Internet Explorer is really pushing other browsers to maintain and develop browsers that are both innovative and functional. I would really hate to see one browser, no matter which one, completely dominate the market. That does little to help the end user.
They probably could have very easily with one little tweak… set Safari as the default browser immediately after installation. Now imagine what it would have been like if they did that!
Well, when comparing it to Safari’s Windows market share yes. But you also have to remember that Netscape is cross-platform, and so it should really be compared to Safari’s overall market share. In that case Safari has a much larger lead.
I’m also a web developer on the side, and I’ve had quite a few headaches on that ground because of how IE handles website rendering. I’ve expressed those frustrations here before and I’m fairly certain that many of our long-term readers know where we stand on browsers… well before we even switched to the Macs.
On the other hand I’ve also applauded IE7 for having what I believe to be the best interface of any browser out there. Unfortunately looks don’t play a big part in the functionality/performance of the browser.
Sure we would like to keep the blog completely unbiased, but the truth of it is that a lot of people come to us for our opinions as well. We comment all the time on things we like, things we don’t like, and things that can be improved on. I apologize if that statement offended you.
Edit: Also, I think I’ve done plenty of Safari bashing on the site as well, so it’s not like I only pick on Internet Explorer.
“I would really hate to see one browser, no matter which one, completely dominate the market.”
Ryan, we ALREADY HAVE one dominating browser. We have to eliminate it, to have a “normal” browser market share. (76% is not normal, it is domination! Normal is 15-25%.) Also, technically, it is the WORST browser on the Earth, as a web-developer you surely know this fact. So, please, don’t post ANYTHING about IE, simply ignore this browser. This will help good browsers to rise.
Also, please, notice the negative reaction of your readers, when you post about IE features.
I would say that IE at one point really dominated the market, but I wouldn’t say that it’s the case anymore since it is pretty much on a steady downward decline. Sure we didn’t see it this month, but looking over the last few years it’s apparent that there is a steady decline.
Something I would consider dominating a market is Windows, where they have retained over a 90% market share for a long time. They haven’t really budged much, which is a sign that they truly are dominating the market because there aren’t enough people venturing outside of that operating system.
Well, it really depends on what you consider the “reaction of our readers.” The stats on our IE articles show that people spend nearly the same amount of time reading them as they do with any other of our articles. If you’re just going by comments, however, then it might be more fair to say that the anti-IE crowd is more vocal than those who actually use IE.
apple is an par excellence company and they very well know what there consumers want that is why these market share gets triple. I won’t be shocking if it goes 10 times above where it is at present. Keep it up guys.