According to digital analytics company StatCounter, Microsoft Edge is on the cusp of surpassing Safari as the world’s second most popular desktop browser (via TechRadar).
Microsoft Edge is currently installed on 9.54 percent of computers globally, behind Apple Safari by only 0.3%, which has a market share of 9.84 percent. With a market share of 65.38 percent, Google Chrome is still the most popular browser in the world. 9.18 percent of the population uses Mozilla Firefox.
Safari’s market share was 10.38 percent in January 2021, but it’s losing users to other browsers at a steady rate. If the current trend continues, Apple may find itself in a position where it’s no longer first or second choice. Since both Chrome and Edge are now Chromium-based browsers, the open source project is poised to take over as the dominant force in desktop web browsing.
Globally, Edge is likely to surpass Safari, although in North America, Safari is in a better position, with 16.87 percent of desktop computers using it. Edge has already eclipsed Safari in Europe with a market share of 10.9% to Safari’s 9.5%. Data from Asia is similar, with Safari’s 5.41 percent market share behind Edge’s 7.56% in terms of market share.
It’s a different storey when it comes to mobile devices, where Safari has a 26.71 percent market share. In spite of Safari being the default browser on the iPhone and iPad, Chrome leads both iOS and Android with a market share of 62.06. Despite having been downloaded 10 million times, according to StatCounter, Edge’s mobile footprint is quite small.
In recent years, some Safari users have complained about the browser’s bugs, user experience, and compatibility with websites. Due to claims that “Safari is the worst, it’s the new IE,” Apple recently called for comments from its Safari staff.
Last year, when Apple presented a major makeover of Safari at WWDC, the issues reached a boiling point, and the modifications were widely panned as “counterintuitive.” Just before the public release of iOS 15, iPadOS15, and macOS Monterey, Apple decided to return to Safari’s original appearance by default after months of refining in response to user input.