Browser Market Report: Firefox Usage Down

Apple's move to release a version of Safari for Windows users has done little to inflate Safari's overall marketshare.

The latest Net Applications data shows Safari took 4.56 percent of the browser market in July, the first full month in which the new Safari 3 Public Beta was readily available.

That's up slightly on June's figures (4.49 percent), but down on May's 4.82 percent share.

Firefox and Opera also took a slight hit, with Firefox falling to 14.37 percent share from 14.55 percent in June, and Opera declining 0.02 percent to achieve 0.89 percent marketshare in July.

Internet Explorer has seen a slight gain on its 78.03 percent share in April, climbing to 78.98 percent last month, the statistics show.

Microsoft's newly-introduced Internet Explorer 7.0 now accounts for 33.15 percent of the browser market, with Safari 3.0 so far grabbing 0.41 percent, the statistics claim.

Safari for Windows isn't yet a complete product, despite frequent updates the software remains a public beta, with initial reactions from Windows users citing some problems using the browser.

Apple continues to address these problems in successive updates to its offering.

The final version of Safari will debut in October, the company has said.