Microsoft Edge Looks Set to Overtake Safari as World's Second Most Popular Desktop Browser

[MacRumors]

Microsoft Edge is on the verge of overtaking Safari as the world's second most popular desktop browser, web analytics service StatCounter reports (via TechRadar).

According to the data, Microsoft Edge is now used on 9.54 percent of desktops worldwide, a mere 0.3 percent behind Apple's Safari, which stands at 9.84 percent. Google Chrome continues to hold first place with an overwhelming 65.38 percent of the market. Mozilla Firefox takes fourth place with 9.18 percent.

In January 2021, Safari held a 10.38 percent market share and appears to be gradually losing users to rival browsers over time. If the trend continues, Apple is likely to slip to third or fourth place in the near future. Edge and Chrome are now both Chromium-based browsers, meaning that Chromium will likely come to dominate the top two desktop browsers.

While Edge appears to be set to overtake Safari on a global scale, in North America, Safari is in a stronger position, being used on 16.87 percent of desktops compared to Edge's 11.93 percent market share. In Europe, Edge has already surpassed Safari, taking 10.9 percent of the market compared to Safari's 9.95 percent. The data is similar in Asia, where Safari's 5.41 percent market share trails behind Edge's 7.46 percent.

Matters are different on mobile platforms, where Safari has a more secure position in second place with a 26.71 percent market share. Despite Safari being the default browser on the iPhone and iPad, Chrome still dominates both iOS and Android with a market share of 62.06 percent. StatCounter suggests that Edge's mobile presence is comparatively diminutive even though it has been downloaded 10 million times on the Google Play Store.

Safari has been met with complaints from some users in recent years over the browser's bugs, user experience, and website compatibility. Apple's Safari team recently asked for feedback amid accusations that "Safari is the worst, it's the new IE."

The problems reached fever pitch last year when Apple unveiled a substantial redesign for Safari at WWDC, which was met with widespread criticism that accused the changes of being "counterintuitive." After months of tweaking the ambitious redesign in response to feedback, Apple eventually gave up on the changes just before the public release of iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS Monterey, reverting to the previous Safari design by default.

Article Link: Microsoft Edge Looks Set to Overtake Safari as World's Second Most Popular Desktop Browser

 

[NoelWalker]

You need Edge to download Chrome after all.

 

[I7guy]

Edge has come a long way. On the iPhone I prefer safari (but use edge also) , on windows edge.

 

[DHagan4755]

Sacrilegious thought? Maybe Apple should use Chromium instead of WebKit. I bet Apple would sure as hell optimize Chromium better than Google has, that's for sure.

 

[skous]

Not surprising...

It's the best browser for Macs right now, and probably one of the best for PCs, so it's logical to be in front, if it is gaining much audience from mac users.

 

[SactoGuy18]

Well, ever since Edge switched to using the Google-sponsored Chromium base, it's a way better browser. And it works better than Chrome itself in some cases.

 

[iDento]

Both Edge and Safari are good web browsers, I guess people choose between them depending on the OS they are using.

What is still surprising is why is Chrome number one, it’s bloatware.

 

[MVMNT]

Sacrilegious thought? Maybe Apple should use Chromium instead of WebKit. I bet Apple would sure as hell optimize Chromium better than Google has, that's for sure.

WiTh ThE PrIvAcY

 

[dlewis23]

Sadly I think we are getting close to seeing the end of Firefox here and this will not be a good thing for the web.

 

[MysticCow]

Edge is not that bad of a browser at all. Infinitely better than the old MSIE it replaced!

Sadly I think we are getting close to seeing the end of Firefox here and this will not be a good thing for the web.

God I hope not. All my functionality on websites depends 100% on Firefox.

 

[one more]

Out of the bunch, I use Safari on both my iPhone & iPad, alternate between Firefox and Safari on a MacBook (Monterey) and Edge on a Windows 10 laptop. Safari “loosing points” to Chrome and Edge might actually be a good thing, with less potential exploits and extra security risks in the future.

 

[NewUsername]

One of the great mysteries in life is why Firefox isn’t more popular.

 

[jwolf6589]

Microsoft Edge is on the verge of overtaking Safari as the world's second most popular desktop browser, web analytics service StatCounter reports (via TechRadar).

According to the data, Microsoft Edge is now used on 9.54 percent of desktops worldwide, a mere 0.3 percent behind Apple's Safari, which stands at 9.84 percent. Google Chrome continues to hold first place with an overwhelming 65.38 percent of the market. Mozilla Firefox takes fourth place with 9.18 percent.

In January 2021, Safari held a 10.38 percent market share and appears to be gradually losing users to rival browsers over time. If the trend continues, Apple is likely to slip to third or fourth place in the near future. Edge and Chrome are now both Chromium-based browsers, meaning that Chromium will likely come to dominate the top two desktop browsers.

While Edge appears to be set to overtake Safari on a global scale, in North America, Safari is in a stronger position, being used on 16.87 percent of desktops compared to Edge's 11.93 percent market share. In Europe, Edge has already surpassed Safari, taking 10.9 percent of the market compared to Safari's 9.95 percent. The data is similar in Asia, where Safari's 5.41 percent market share trails behind Edge's 7.46 percent.

Matters are different on mobile platforms, where Safari has a more secure position in second place with a 26.71 percent market share. Despite Safari being the default browser on the iPhone and iPad, Chrome still dominates both iOS and Android with a market share of 62.06 percent. StatCounter suggests that Edge's mobile presence is comparatively diminutive even though it has been downloaded 10 million times on the Google Play Store.

Safari has been met with complaints from some users in recent years over the browser's bugs, user experience, and website compatibility. Apple's Safari team recently asked for feedback amid accusations that "Safari is the worst, it's the new IE."

The problems reached fever pitch last year when Apple unveiled a substantial redesign for Safari at WWDC, which was met with widespread criticism that accused the changes of being "counterintuitive." After months of tweaking the ambitious redesign in response to feedback, Apple eventually gave up on the changes just before the public release of iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS Monterey, reverting to the previous Safari design by default.

Article Link: Microsoft Edge Looks Set to Overtake Safari as World's Second Most Popular Desktop Browser

I love Mac Safari but let’s get real here. They need to fix the out of memory issue that I sometimes experience mostly on FB.

 

[nwcs]

Chromium is the new IE with its monumental share. For good or ill it has created its own variants of interpretation of html just like IE did. Eventually it'll either be the norm that everyone uses in one form or another or something else will disrupt the market and steal away shares. Then we'll be left with a decade of even more incompatibility as legacy things will only work on one and new things work on both until it's unprofitable.

 

[andrewxgx]

no suprise, they push Edge as aggresively as possible (like, they ask you to change your default browser to Edge every bigger Win11 update).
i'd argue theres a reason for that too. they can now track you across browser AND operating system. like, one of the questions when you setup Edge is whether you want to Edge have access to other browsers data (not one time import. continously.)

 

[Marbles1]

Great to have Edge on Mac - works well (as expected) with office 365, Sharepoint and the other enterprise tools that I'm so often forced to deal with

 

[jgassens]

I like Safari but plugin support is just so frustrating. I hadn't used Firefox is probably 15 years but it's really good. Nice plugin support… honestly, a solid browser. Edge is good, but really, Firefox is pretty outstanding.

 

[Unggoy Murderer]

Sacrilegious thought? Maybe Apple should use Chromium instead of WebKit. I bet Apple would sure as hell optimize Chromium better than Google has, that's for sure.

Blink (Chromium's rendering engine) was actually forked from WebKit several years ago.

I'd much rather use Edge over Chrome, that's for sure. But Safari is my daily driver, works great, and is always snappy.

 

[4jasontv]

I love Mac Safari but let’s get real here. They need to fix the out of memory issue that I sometimes experience mostly on FB.

Chrome also has memory issues. It’s my go to on desktop and it crashes. Not as often as others, but it still has memory issues.

 

[MallardDuck]

I used edge until they started opting me in to their spyware shopping 'features'. Now back to Firefox and safari.

safari is great until it isn't. Tons of sites simply don't work in safari.

 

[dabi]

Good. Safari is the new Internet Explorer, it slows down adoption of new web standards and codecs. Ever since Cook took over, Apple has been doing everything they can to make the open web as unappealing as possible, forcing people to adopt proprietary app model. We can't end up with another IE6 situation, MacOS users need to switch to better alternatives, while iOS hopefully we'll be forced to open up through legislation.

 

[ahurst]

no suprise, they push Edge as aggresively as possible (like, they ask you to change your default browser to Edge every bigger Win11 update).
i'd argue theres a reason for that too. they can now track you across browser AND operating system.

Yeah, I was going to say, anyone who’s installed Windows recently probably knows why Edge is on the rise: when you go to download Firefox or Chrome it gives you a whole “are you *sure* you want to do that? Edge is a fast and modern browser too, you know” alert that would absolutely scare off at least ~10% of users. Safari, to its credit, just shrugs and says “you’re the boss”.

 

[Madhatter32]

It's still Firefox for me.

 

[nt5672]

If Apple's Safari was not such a POS it would probably be rising instead of falling. But when pages don't load and you switch to either Brave or Firefox and they do, something is just plain wrong. Don't get me wrong there are things I like about Safari, but again, like a lot of Apple products these days that look good, have good feature lists, Safari fails at fundamental tasks (which are more involved than just browsing MacRumors).

For those fans that say, "Its the web format, not Safari." Will, I remember the days when Safari was better at rendering web pages designed for Internet Exploder (IE), than IE was.

 

[contacos]

funny at my company its over 70% Safari but it is no surprise as over 80 % of our users come from mobile (hence iPhone). Edge isn't even in the top 5 according to GA