Safari to reach 10% market share pretty soon
Just a quick note. I think that Apple was very clever to launch Safari on Windows. Although I do not expect to see people moving to a new browser in droves, I can see millions of Apple users who have to deal with Windows at work or at school switch to their favorite browser. This will immediately translate in a couple of percentage points in market share. If you add the iPhone, which will access traditional web sites using Safari, it is clear that in the next few months we will see impressive market share gains for Apple’s browser. Personally, I am betting that Safari will hit a 10% market share in December.
Although Apple makes no financial gains from Safari, the browser is a piece of software of strategic importance if they want to make sure that the Internet remains standards based. Microsoft and Adobe have recently announced strategies to develop proprietary technologies to improve user experience with web based applications. However, these technologies are a real competitive threat to other players. It is clear that Apple understands this perfectly. That is why they are attacking Microsoft on their own turf and at the same time fighting Adobe by making Flash less relevant (not supporting it on the iPhone and working with Google to switch youTube content to H.264).