In the wee hours of Friday morning, Apple posted a press release stating that the new version of their trademarked browser, Safari, was downloaded eleven million times in just three days. According to the glowing report, Safari 4 is better than you and you and you—Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Chrome to be specific. Why? Speed. Plain and simple, Safari boasts more boost than any browser on the market, due to a juiced-up Java engine, and a few other tweaks.

Although Safari’s speed advantage over its browser-cousins is arguable, the download numbers are not. A demographic snapshot of the users who downloaded the new software reveals an astonishing fact. More than half (six million plus) of the downloads was the Windows version of the browser. Why Windows users are downloading Apple’s software is not entirely clear. However, three interesting points suggest the reason for Apple’s successful Safari 4 launch.

First and foremost, Apple did a pretty successful job of marketing the browser—marketing its speed that is. Anyone wants a faster browser, and so the promise of lighting-fast Java loads, better offline capabilities, swifter downloads, and some cool features—the urge to download is irresistible. Although some of their speed claims may be dubious, their marketing was successful—as usual. One way that they bumped up the publicity was using the World Wide Developer Conference as a launch platform. Apparently, the few well-placed comments were not lost amidst the iPhone 3G gawking, and drove additional traffic to the site for a quick Safari look-see.

Second, Safari is free. Of course, a free browser is no big deal. Free browser downloads can be had from Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome, too. However, Apple’s customary price tag is a bit higher than market median. Thus, getting a free piece of the Apple brand is kind of nice (or intriguing), primarily for Windows users.

The final and most fascinating factoid of Safari’s 11-million-download-free-for-all is that many of the downloads were ‘compulsory.’ In other words, even if the users don’t want it, won’t use it, and couldn’t care less, they downloaded it anyway. In the words of one cynical user, “Apple basically pushed it out to everyone it possibly could, whether they wanted it or not.” Thus, with a few groggy early-morning clicks, some users may have joined the eleven-million crowd without even realizing it, thanks to Apple’s easy updating. While no one knows exactly how many auto-updates were part of the eleven million, this probably contributes a significant portion to the large number of downloads.

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