Mac Musings

Firefox and Safari Continue Chipping Away at Microsoft's Dominance

Dan Knight - 2006.10.11 - Tip Jar

Low End Mac Reader Specials

Memory To Go Special: New 2008 iMac 2GB $42 / iMac Intel Core2 DUO & MacBook Pro 2GB $36 - 1GB $20. MacPro 8 Core Memory 8GB kit $286 / 4GB kit $143 / 2GB kit $93 -- Free shipping available. LIfetime warranty.

Download Typestyler, still the Ultimate Styling Tool for Internet, Print and Video Graphics. Works great in Classic with a Native OS X Version on the way. Free Tryout: www.typestyler.com

LA Computer Company: Specials on AppleCare, iMac's, Apple Batteries and Apple A/C Adapters. Also Great prices on Used Apple Computers. Call 1-800-941-7654 Click Here.

OWC: OWC Mercury On-The-Go FW400/800/USB2/eSATA Portables High Performance A/V Rated, **Bus Powered** **Up to 500GB in the Palm of your Hand** Macworld Editor's Choice, CNET 'Very Good' - from $75.99!

Mac users can finally play Party Poker for Mac. Not only that, they can also learn how to play PokerStars for Mac.

Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.

Compare products like desktop computers, laptops, and LCD TVs side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for a new cell phone GPS products or MP3 players. The Ciao network makes searching products easy for you.

The latest browser numbers are in, and the Internet Explorer hegemony is shrinking. According to Net Applications, IE usage has dropped from 86.87% in Sept. 2005 to 82.10% in Sept. 2006.

Put another way, less than 1 in 7 users were using something other than Internet Explorer a year ago, and today more than 1 in 6 are using Firefox, Safari, Opera, or another alternative to IE.

Both Safari and Firefox have grown significantly. At 12.46%, Firefox use has grown by about 65% in a year, and Safari, now at 3.53%, is up by roughly 50% vs. a year ago.

Other Losers

Microsoft isn't the only loser.

Firefox has grown at the expense of Netscape and Mozilla. Netscape usage fell from 2.16% a year ago to 0.85%, and Mozilla from a minuscule 0.42% to 0.25%.

Opera has grown a bit from 0.51% to 0.64%, and "other browsers" (which includes iCab, OmniWeb, Konqueror, Camino, and others) have increased their combined share from 0.08% to 0.15% - nearly double what it was a year ago.

What Does It Mean?

Microsoft isn't on the ropes by any stretch of the imagination, since 82% of browser users still use Internet Explorer. And IE 7.0 is nearing official release, including such "innovations" <cough cough> as tabbed browsing.

From these statistics, we have further evidence that the Mac's market share is growing, since the majority of Mac users use Safari, Apple's default browser. Apple is growing its market share.

The growth in Firefox shows two things: Firefox has essentially displaced Netscape and other versions of Mozilla, and Windows users are beginning to take security seriously, looking at a browser with a lot less security problems than Internet Explorer.

As the installed base of Macs and Linux computers continues to grow, it will continue to chip away at Microsoft's dominance, since the Redmond giant doesn't make Internet Explorer for either platform. Between people looking for an alternative to Windows and those looking for an alternative to IE, Microsoft's market share has nowhere to go but down.

On a personal note, I'm in such a small minority that I don't even show up among the top five browsers. My default is Camino, a version of Mozilla built especially for Mac OS X, and I use Firefox, a special G4 optimized version of Firefox, SeaMonkey, and Safari just a bit of the time.

Whatever your favorite browser, you owe it to yourself to see what's new. Safari is better than it used to be, and Firefox is making big strides forward. Opera, although it has a very small market share, also makes a very nice browser, and if you still use the classic Mac OS, you really ought to give iCab a try. LEM

Dan Knight has been using Macs since 1986, sold Macs for several years, supported them for many more years, and has been publishing Low End Mac since April 1997. If you find Dan's articles helpful, please consider making a donation to his tip jar.

Recent Mac Musings

Links for the Day

Recent Content on Low End Mac

About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts

Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2008 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
  LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
  Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
  Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
  PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
  Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, iPhone, PowerBook, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.


Have a question?
Ask an expert!

Navigation

Used Mac Dealers
Apple History
Best Used Macs
Video Cards
Email Lists
InfoMac's Low
End Mac Forum

Favorite Sites

MacSurfer
MacMinute
MacInTouch
MyAppleMenu
InfoMac
Macs Only!
The Mac Observer
Accelerate Your Mac
RetroMacCast
PB Central
MacWindows
The Vintage Mac
   Museum
DealMac
DealsOnTheWeb
Mac2Sell
ramseeker
Mac Driver Museum
JAG's House
System 6 Heaven
System 7 Today
the pickle's Low-End
   Mac FAQ
Abandonware
   Petition
Mac vs. PC Info

Affiliates

The Apple Store
Mac Connection
MacMall
TechRestore
MacResQ
ExperCom
Crucial Memory
batteries.com

Advertise

All of our advertising is handled by BackBeat Media. For price quotes and advertising information, please contact at BackBeat Media (646-546-5194). This number is for advertising only.

Open Link

Problems viewing this page with Internet Explorer 5.5 or 6? It works fine in other browsers, including IE 7. We recommend Firefox for those using Windows, as it is standards based and more secure than IE 6 (and earlier). More LEM visitors use Firefox than any other browser.