Safari still reigns in mobile browser wars, Google to No. 2
updated 06:40 am EDT, Tue November 1, 2011
Safari wins mobile browser battle, IE top in PCs
The latest data on mobile and desktop browser use is in and its shows that Apple has extended its lead as the dominant mobile web browsing platform. Safari usage rates increased from 55.6 percent of all mobile web traffic in September to a new high of 62.2 percent in October. Google’s mobile browser leap frogged Opera Mini by taking 18.7 percent of web traffic, while Opera Mini dipped from 18.9 percent to 13.1 percent.
Opera has a revised version of its mobile browser inbound and plans to replace Opera Mini with a full mobile version. The new browser will be able to switch to Opera Mini mode when network bandwidth becomes scarce. Unsurprisingly, Symbian dropped its share from 4.7 percent to just 2.6 percent and BlackBerry dipped slightly from 2.7 percent to 2.4 percent.
In contrast to the fluctuating mobile browser space, the desktop space remains relatively steady and shows Microsoft maintaining its lead with a 52.6 percent share, dipping from 54.4 percent in September. Firefox retained second place with a 22.5 percent share, while Chrome increased its share from 16.2 percent to 17.6 percent. The desktop version of Apple’s Safari gained slightly moving from 5 percent to 5.4 percent.
However, as the third graph below shows, the desktop browser space is where the action remains by a wide margin. In fact, in October desktop browsers actually reversed recent mobile gains by moving back from 93.7 percent of all browsing activity to 94.2 percent. Correspondingly, total mobile browser use dropped from 6 percent to 5.5 percent. [via CNET]
