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.

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.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs’s claim that Safari is responsible for 71% of mobile browser usage apparently echoed throughout Microsoft HQ like a hearty Nelson Mundt “Hah Hah!” since Microsoft (MSFT) has developed a more robust version of Internet Explorer Mobile with which to challenge it. At the CTIA conference in Las Vegas this morning, the company announced Windows Mobile 6.1 and along with it a new desktop-grade version of IE Mobile. With support for Adobe Flash and Silverlight, the browser should help Microsoft better compete with the full Web-browsing experience provided by Mobile Safari. Expect it at market in the third quarter of 2008.