News.blog: Windows Safari tops 1 million downloads

Safari was an early hit with Windows users, who have downloaded 1 million copies of the browser since Monday, according to Apple.

Chief executive Steve Jobs unveiled the Windows version of the browser as a beta release on Monday during his keynote speech at the Worldwide Developers Conference. Safari makes up around 5 per cent of the browser market, trailing Internet Explorer and Firefox with its 18.6 million users, a figure Jobs used in his speech on Monday.

Cynical colleagues at CNET wonder how many of those downloads were started by hackers and security professionals probing for weaknesses, which is probably a fair point. Nine security vulnerabilities have already been discovered in the Windows beta, and Apple released an updated version of the browser in the wee hours of Thursday morning to plug some of the flaws.

Still, there had to be more than a few downloads from outside the security community. The 1 million copies are of the initial beta release, tagged 3.0.