News

Safari Passes Firefox, IE 8 Still Tops Browser Data for July

• By Chris Paoli
• August 3, 2011

Apple's Safari 5 browser gained enough ground in July to take the second spot behind Internet Explorer 8, according to a survey.

According to Web analytics group Net Applications, Apple's Safari Web browser posted an 8.1 percent jump in market share for the month of July -- the largest one-month increase for that browser. Apple's browser passed Mozilla's browser and Microsoft's newest version of Internet Explorer to hold second place. Net Applications reported Safari 5 use at 11.2 percent, Internet Explorer 9 use at 11.0 percent, while Firefox 5 took fourth place at 9.0 percent use.

Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 led the pack, with a commanding 33.5 percent market share. Some IE 8 users may be stuck from upgrading, since IE 9 only runs on Windows Vista and Windows 7 OSes. Net Applications analysts believe that this short-term limitation will ultimately play off for Microsoft as Windows XP use declines.

"So what are the usage share ramifications for this decision? Microsoft seems willing to sacrifice usage share in the short term in order to leapfrog the competition in the long run by applying all their resources to modern versions of Windows," Net Applications explained, in a released statement. "Although Windows XP currently has 54% of global usage share, Windows 7 usage share is following a strong, fairly linear path upwards and Windows versions from Vista forward should have a majority share within a couple years."

IE 9 still has a long way to go to meet those expectations. The browser finished the month of July in fifth place among Windows 7 users, with a market share of 3.6 percent. Meanwhile, IE 8 still leads over its younger sibling, with more than half of all Windows 7 users choosing it for their Internet browser.

Stats courtesy of Net Applications.