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It’s time for some global browser stats courtesy of StatCounter. On desktop, Chrome is growing mightily. On mobile, Android and Safari increase their lead somewhat, to the detriment of especially Nokia and Opera. Also, Firefox disappears from the mobile radar, and I hadn’t expected that.
After years where the mobile browser market was a three-way race between Safari, Android, and Opera, it’s becoming clear that Opera is losing some terrain. It’s still easily the third-largest mobile browser, but it’s falling behind the other two, and that seems to be a long-term trend, and not just a short-term fluctuation.
Nokia, too, is falling, although as usual it’s not clear which Nokia browser is losing ground here: Xpress, the Gecko-based proxy browser for S40 phones, or Nokia WebKit, the full browser for Symbian.
UC, China’s home-grown browser, continues to expend — and I expect that expansion to take place mostly in the developing world, though that will have to wait for some additional number-crunching.
Chrome is doing fine: it tripled its market share these past six months, and one wonders whether it will ever overtake the stock Android browser. Not any time soon, but maybe in a year or so.
Related note: yesterday I went to a phone shop where they had working Galaxy IVs, and both models I tested showed the stock browser to be Chrome — Chrome 18, to be exact. Theirs was not an Android WebKit browser string. I did not expect this, but it would improve Chrome’s chances all the more.
Finally, and surprisingly, Firefox dropped under the radar. It scored above 0.5% in Q4 of last year, but it’s more around 0.3% in Q2. I had expected Firefox to slowly increase its market share, too, but that does not appear to be the case.
| Browser | Q2 2013 | ch | Q1 2013 | ch | Q4 2012 | ch | Q3 2012 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Android | 30% | -1 | 31% | +4 | 27% | +3 | 24% |
| Safari | 26% | -1 | 27% | +4 | 23% | -1 | 24% |
| Opera | 16% | +1 | 15% | -3 | 18% | -1 | 19% |
| UC | 9% | 0 | 9% | 0 | 9% | +1 | 8% |
| Nokia | 7% | 0 | 7% | -3 | 10% | 0 | 10% |
| BlackBerry | 3% | 0 | 3% | -1 | 4% | 0 | 4% |
| Chrome | 3% | +2 | 1% | 0 | 1% | 0 | 1% |
| NetFront | 2% | -1 | 3% | -1 | 4% | 0 | 4% |
| IE | 1% | 0 | 1% | 0 | 1% | 0 | 1% |
| Dolfin | 1% | 0 | 1% | 0 | 1% | 0 | 1% |
| Other | 2% | 0 | 2% | 0 | 2% | -2 | 4% |
| Volatility | 3% | 8% | 5% | ||||
| Mobile | 15% | +1 | 14% | +1 | 13% | +1 | 12% |
On the desktop side (which includes tablets at StatCounter) Chrome continues to win swaths of market share, to the detriment of Firefox and especially IE. That’s nothing new, but one wonders when (or if) this trend is going to stop.
| Browser | Q2 2013 | ch | Q1 2013 | ch | Q4 2012 | ch | Q3 2012 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chrome | 41% | +4 | 37% | +1 | 36% | +2 | 34% |
| IE | 28% | -2 | 30% | -1 | 31% | -2 | 33% |
| Firefox | 20% | -1 | 21% | -1 | 22% | -1 | 23% |
| Safari | 8% | -1 | 9% | +1 | 8% | +1 | 7% |
| Opera | 1% | 0 | 1% | 0 | 1% | -1 | 2% |
| Others | 2% | 0 | 2% | 0 | 2% | +1 | 1% |
| Volatility | 4% | 2% | 4% |
This is the blog of Peter-Paul Koch, web developer, consultant, and trainer.
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