Safari 4 download stat is pure hype

The ridiculously thin claim that the latest Safari is a wild success is an issue

I know I'm cruisin' for some abusin' at the hands of the Mac fanatics today, because twice in one morning I've felt compelled to bring a little skepticism to the exuberant reporting surrounding the latest developments from Apple. This time, all the major tech outlets are credulously reporting on this morning's press release from Apple, which heralds the runaway success of Safari 4 on the basis of 11 million downloads in three days.

Now, I'm not doubting Apple's numbers. Why would I? But as someone with three Macs at home, I couldn't help but notice that Apple pushed Safari 4 out as an automatic update to all of its users this week. Yesterday, all three of the Macs in my household received the update, and we don't even use Safari. (We prefer Firefox.)

An informal poll of my friends and colleagues reveals a whole lot of the same. Got the update dialog, downloaded and installed it, don't intend to use it.

It may well be that Safari 4 is a fantastic browser, and that's not what's at issue here. What is at issue is the ridiculously thin claim that the latest Safari is a wild success on the basis that Apple basically pushed it out to everyone it possibly could, whether they wanted it or not. This very clearly echoes the last big Safari update, which Apple also pushed to unsuspecting users through its update tool.

Robert Strohmeyer is a senior editor at PC World. He doesn't actually have anything against Apple, but the fanaticism gets under his skin. He tweets as @rstrohmeyer.

Join the newsletter!

Or

Sign up to gain exclusive access to email subscriptions, event invitations, competitions, giveaways, and much more.

Membership is free, and your security and privacy remain protected. View our privacy policy before signing up.

Error: Please check your email address.

Tags Applesafariweb browsers

More about AppleMacsMozilla

Show Comments
[]