I’ve seen several articles recently proclaiming loudly that Google’s Chrome browser has taken over the number three spot from Safari (e.g., Google Chrome is Now the No. 3 Browser | Search Engine Journal).
One would think this were a huge accomplishment from all the excitement. But in reality, beating out Safari, the Apple browser, is a small accomplishment, given that it has never had more than 5% market share, especially since this follows the recent release of the Apple version of Google Chrome.
Here is the way the statistics stack up currently, according to Net Applications’ web browser usage data for December:
| Browser | Percent of Market |
|---|---|
| Microsoft Internet Explorer | 62.69% |
| Firefox | 24.61% |
| Google Chrome | 4.63% |
| Apple Safari | 4.46% |
| Opera | 2.40% |
| Opera Mini (mobile browser) | 0.53% |
| Other | 0.63% |
After all the furious negative publicity over the past 5 years, Internet Explorer still has two-thirds of the market, although that is a slip from 80-90% before Firefox was introduced. Meanwhile, Firefox has risen to approximately one quarter of the market.
So what this all boils down to is that Google Chrome now has about a thundering third of the one-eighth market share left over after Internet Explorer and Firefox have taken their cuts.
That wouldn’t seem to me to be a reason for breaking out the champagne just yet.
Discussion continues at http://forum.psychlinks.ca/computers-technology-and-the-internet/21364-browser-wars.html.
….
Addendum
Now, from Computerworld via PC World comes this:
Windows Loses Market Share to Mobile Operating Systems
by Gregg Keizer, Computerworld
Jan 3, 2010Microsoft’s Windows resumed its usual losing form in December as the operating system’s usage share dropped by about a third of a point even as the new Windows 7 posted a second straight month of impressive gains, Web metrics firm Net Applications said Friday.
Although rival desktop operating systems — Mac and Linux — essentially remained flat, mobile OSes, including Google’s Android and Apple’s iPhone OS, took up the slack created by Windows’ dip. Mobile operating systems, said Net Applications, now power 1.3% of all the hardware that surfs the Internet.
Windows finished the year with a 92.2% share, down 0.3 of a percentage point. It was the eighth month in 2009 during which Windows lost share.
So more people are using mobile operating systems. And Microsoft Windows has “fallen” to a lowly 92.2% share of all operating systems when mobile OSs are included.
Does anyone seriously believe that having a 92.2% market share is going to worry Microsoft or its shareholders?
