According to a story on ComputerWorld, market share of Apple’s Safari web browser as well as usage of Mozilla Firefox both dropped in the last month. Internet Explorer market share actually gained.

Market share for Safari dropped from 5.8% to 5.5%. Firefox usage went from 17.8% to 17%. Internet Explorer usage went from 74.8% to 76%.

I’m not exactly sure what would explain the shift, although that shift isn’t very large.

Apple did make news not long ago for using Apple Update to promote Safari to Windows users who were not running it. This made some people angry, including John Lily, CEO of Mozilla. He lambasted Apple in a blog post where he compared the practice to malware and said it “undermines the Internet”.

My guess is that IE usage increased slightly because of a new wave of people using Windows Update because they are looking for service packs for XP and Vista. Windows XP SP3 is rolling out currently whereas Vista SP1 hasn’t yet officially made its way to Windows Update. But, I have little doubt that people checking Windows Update is leading to the increase in usage of Internet Explorer.

While Safari market share dropped overall, their update strategy certainly was effective when it comes specifically to Windows users. A story on Gizmodo shows that Safari usage on Windows tripled.

Late last week, I posted here on PCMech that Apple was using the software updater to recommend Safari to users who do not have it installed. As I checked the headlines, the CEO of Mozilla has responded by saying that it is “wrong”.

John Lilly, the Mozilla CEO, posted on his blog:

There’s an implicit trust relationship between software makers and customers in this regard: as a software maker we promise to do our very best to keep users safe and will provide the quickest updates possible, with absolutely no other agenda. And when the user trusts the software maker, they’ll generally go ahead and install the patch, keeping themselves and everyone else safe.

Is it actually wrong?

Personally, I don’t think so. A little on the shady side? Sure. However, I really don’t see it being much different than Microsoft using Windows Update to push IE7. The one difference, of course, is that Windows Update does not push unrelated software while that is exactly what Apple is doing.

Personally, I think it is a bonehead move. Windows users, just uncheck the Safari update and skip it. Safari on Windows isn’t that good anyway. Just use Firefox - you’re a lot better off.

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