Did Apple “Push” Safari 4 Out to Millions of Users? Not Really.
Paul Thurrott, in a post featured prominently on Techmeme, wrote Friday that Apple is “making lemonade” in claiming that its new web browser, Safari 4, has been downloaded more than 11 million times. Paul quotes approvingly from a piece by PC World’s Robert Strohmeyer which was cross-posted to Macworld:
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.
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.
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.
(Emphasis Paul’s.)
What I take issue with is Robert’s equally misleading title (“Safari 4 download stat is pure hype”) and use of the phrase “pushed it out“. I suppose it depends on how you define “push“, but to me, this reflects a lack of understanding of how Apple Software Update works.
Unlike Microsoft’s Automatic Updates, for which the recommended and default behavior is to automatically check for, download, and install updates at a given time of day (what I consider “push“), Apple Software Update does not have the ability to automatically download or install anything:
Here’s what Apple Software Update looks like when it pops up, first on a Windows XP machine without Safari installed:
With Safari 3.2.3 installed:
Without Safari installed, Safari 4 appears in the lower pane (New Software), not selected. With Safari 3 (or 4 beta) installed, Safari 4 appears in the upper pane (Updates), already selected, meaning the user must un-check the box if they choose not to install Safari 4.
Is Strohmeyer suggesting that most Mac users (including himself, evidently) are too lazy and/or ignorant to un-check the box for Safari in Apple Software Update, and are therefore (in some cases, unknowingly) downloading and installing Safari 4, without actually wanting it?
Is Thurrott suggesting that most Windows users (including himself, evidently) who had previously made a choice to download and install Safari (which is not bundled with Windows) are similarly too lazy and/or ignorant?
Apple is not “pushing” Safari 4 on anyone. And I doubt that the laziness or ignorance of users accounts for a significant fraction of the Safari 4 downloads claimed by Apple.
Of course Apple will claim the largest number they possibly can, it makes the most sense for a business. But you must also see that the way it is reported is slightly deceiving. The numbers as reported seem to indicate that droves of people have heard of the new version and gone out and downloaded it. While of course this has happened, a lot of people have just received it as part of their normal update procedure.
Yes, people could choose not to download it, but chances are many won’t pay attention to what the updater is telling them it is installing, and just confirm it to get back to what they were doing – or they already had a previous version installed that they had tried and thought why not let it update, regardless of whether it will actually be used. This is the muddy waters, since making an announcement about numbers downloaded automatically leads a reader to believe all these people are actually going to *use* the software.
Any company that uses a similar tactic should be brought to task as well – this is not an attack against Apple even though they may have a history of this sort of thing – since it is being deceiving and not providing the whole story.
Well said. There is a significant difference between “push” and “pull.” While the notification that it was available was “pushed” at me (at my choice), when I updated to Safari 4 yesterday, I very clearly “pulled” it down to my PC.
Mick and B: Thank you for reading and commenting on my post! Mick, I agree that Apple is not innocent. Certainly they are taking the downloads figure and running with it. It should be pointed out, as you have, that the update process is responsible for many of the downloads. Where I take issue with Strohmeyer and Thurrott is the notion of the figure being “pure hype” and having no meaning at all, that everyone was snookered into downloading the product by the update process. I just don’t think that’s accurate.