by , 3:15 PM EST, January 20th, 2003
Apple has announced that Safari downloads have topped 1 million in the 13 days since it was released. Safari is Apple's Mac OS X-only Web browser that was released during Macworld San Francisco 2003. Currently in a beta release, Apple is touting the browser as the fastest Web browser for the Mac, including rival browser Internet Explorer made by Microsoft.
In a press release from Apple, CEO Steve Jobs said: "Safari is a home run, with over a million downloads in less than two weeks. Mac users have discovered that Safari beta release is already the fastest browser on the Mac and possibly the best browser in the world."
During the Expo, Apple announced that some 300,000 copies of Safari had been downloaded during the first day of availability, with the 500,000 mark being met later that week.
Last week, TMO published a story saying that Safari was the #2 browser in use at our site since its release, with some 20.72% of all Web pages having been called up with Safari.
You can find more information on Safari at Apple's Web site.
If Apple works hard to make sure that all sites are viewable and accessible by Safari, something the company can do if it chooses, it will benefit not only Mac users, but content providers who will hopefully find a willing partner anxious to adhere to open standards. That could keep a lot of doors from being closed to Mac users if Microsoft decides to turn up the heat on its infamous "embrace and extend" strategy. The company worked hard to get content providers to make content available only to Windows IE users through the use proprietary Web technologies in order to beat Netscape, and could do so again. It's doubtful that Safari will be perceived as that much of a threat by Big Redmond, however.