Insert Bad Surfin' Safari Pun Here

The holidays were particularly kind to Apple’s (AAPL) Mobile Safari Web browser. According to Net Applications, the number of Americans using Safari to browse the Web via the iPhone and iPod Touch rose dramatically last week–presumably as people tested out their new Christmas gifts.

Browser share for the iPod Touch averaged 0.17 percent between Dec. 25 and 28. That’s nearly three times the 0.06 percent it averaged for the for the three weeks prior. Browser share for the iPhone saw a similar spike. Since Dec. 25, its share has averaged 0.65 percent, an increase of about 50 percent over the 0.42 percent share it averaged from Dec. 1 to 24. And those averages appear to be holding steady–for the time being, anyway. An impressive showing for Safari, which may well be defining our expectations for the mobile Web.