Browser wars: Apple's M1 chips help Safari close the gap on Google Chrome

The success of Apple’s M1 vary of silicon may have inadvertently helped drive up the market share of web browser Safari, new knowledge suggests.The first M1-powered MacBooks have been launched in 2020, adopted by a series of cellular workstations powered by the M1 Max and M1 Ultra in October, 2021. Both launches have been met with essential acclaim.

All Apple units, in fact, include Safari pre-installed. And in response to the newest figures from Statcounter, the firm’s browser now accounts for 19.6% of web exercise, up 1.2% in the final three months alone.While the enhance might sound comparatively insignificant as a proportion, the uncooked numbers are way more compelling; knowledge on the whole variety of web customers from Statista suggests Safari has attracted roughly 58 million further customers since the begin of October.

A giant yr for Safari?

The ubiquity of Apple merchandise (iPhones and iPads, in addition to Mac units) means Safari is comfortably the world’s second largest browser, streets forward of the likes of Microsoft Edge and Firefox.However, Safari remains to be nowhere close to as broadly used as Google Chrome (with 64% market share), which at the moment has considerably of a stranglehold on the sector.That mentioned, the ever-growing recognition of Apple units and the firm’s fame for prime ranges of safety and knowledge privateness may see Safari start to close the gap on Chrome this yr.Apple has additionally been clear about its efforts to speed up the adoption of enterprise Macs, which can have a knock-on impact on the dimension of the Safari person base. Last month, Apple introduced it's making ready a tool subscription providing whereby companies will be capable of lease MacBooks for as little as $30/month.

Although Google executives gained’t lose any sleep over the menace posed by Safari simply but, the browser wars seem set to rage on in 2023.