Safari Sits Stable in Oct, IE Slips Down

by , 10:55 AM EST, November 3rd, 2008

Apple's Safari take of the Web browser market remained relatively stable in October, grabbing 6.65 percent, up only slightly from September's 6.37 percent. Microsoft's Internet Explorer, however, continued on its slow downward trend giving up share to Firefox, according to data from Market Share.

The Windows-only Internet Explorer went into October with 71.52 percent of the browser market, but slid down to 71.27 percent as it moved into November. Microsoft's browser has been steadily losing market share for months on end as users move to Firefox, Safari, and now to a small degree Google's Windows-only Chrome browser.

Firefox almost topped 20 percent of the browser market for the first time in October, ending the month with 19.97 percent. In comparison, Firefox ended August with a 19.75 percent market share, but dipped slightly in September to 19.46 percent.

Safari and Firefox have been on an upward swing for months as interest in both browsers continues to grow. Internet Explorer, however, has been losing market share to both for well over a year, which is likley an indication that many Windows users are hunting for alternatives to Microsoft's market dominating Web browser.

While the statistics are handy for getting snapshot overviews of a particular Web browser's popularity, looking at the numbers over time offers a better impression of overall popularity. In this case, the numbers seem to indicate a growing interest in Safari and Firefox at the expense of Internet Explorer.