Edge And Safari Use On The Decline

Dip in popularity of pre-installed Microsoft and Apple browsers.

There’s a mindset shift taking place in the tech world, and it appears to be one that rebels against “forced” software and web browser choices. New reports have indicated that both the Microsoft Edge browser that came pre-installed with Windows 10 and Apple’s Safari browser are on the decline among internet fans, indicating that today’s savvy computer user isn’t going to be held to one particular choice just because the developer decided it’s the best product for the job.

Microsoft’s pre-installed browser has lost its Edge.

In an interesting aside, Microsoft’s other well-known product, Internet Explorer, joins the other two browsers as the trio of titles that have been on the steady decline since 2015. According to TechEye, about two years ago 62% of Windows users ran those Microsoft browsers, but recent figures show that the number has dropped to 27%. On the Apple side of things, as much as 69% of Mac users used to rely on Safari, but now that has dropped to only 52%.

So if users aren’t opting for the built-in browsers, what are they using for their web needs? Mozilla has been steady in popularity, neither gaining nor losing ground. The major player is Google’s Chrome browser, popular among educational institutions, security-minded tech users, privacy experts, and more.

According to NetMarketShare, Chrome has grown to take on more than 58% of the web browsing market. This means that roughly 6 out of 10 computers are running the browser, a pretty interesting finding since Chrome must be downloaded and does not come pre-installed on Windows machines. There are agreements in place with other software developers to include Chrome as a “check box” on their downloads, but that still wouldn’t account for this size of a user base.

Recent innovations for Chrome to run on the macOS may also contribute to the increasing numbers of users. The “red flag” warning for Mac that alert users to potentially harmful websites or downloads, for example, are Google’s attempts to chip away at the recent increase in Mac malware; this feature is a appreciated by consumers who rely on the low threat-level that Mac was famous for.

Fancy a change? Check out our huge range of great browsers here.