It’s been one month since our last look at the worldwide browser usage chart. It’s often quieter during the middle of the year, so let’s see what StatCounter’s statistics tell us…
| Browser | June | July | change | relative |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IE 9.0+ | 16.55% | 16.93% | +0.38% | +2.30% |
| IE 8.0 | 13.78% | 13.26% | -0.52% | -3.80% |
| IE 7.0 | 1.40% | 1.28% | -0.12% | -8.60% |
| IE 6.0 | 0.57% | 0.52% | -0.05% | -8.80% |
| Firefox 4.0+ | 22.33% | 21.96% | -0.37% | -1.70% |
| Firefox 3.7- | 2.23% | 1.80% | -0.43% | -19.30% |
| Chrome | 32.80% | 33.90% | +1.10% | +3.40% |
| Safari | 7.00% | 7.13% | +0.13% | +1.90% |
| Opera | 1.77% | 1.71% | -0.06% | -3.40% |
| Others | 1.57% | 1.51% | -0.06% | -3.80% |
| IE (all) | 32.30% | 31.99% | -0.31% | -1.00% |
| Firefox (all) | 24.56% | 23.76% | -0.80% | -3.30% |
The table shows market share estimates for desktop browsers. The ‘change’ column shows the absolute increase or decrease in market share. The ‘relative’ column indicates the proportional change, i.e. another 8.8% of IE6 users abandoned the browser last month. There are several caveats so I recommend you read How Browser Market Share is Calculated.
While Chrome struggled to achieve 0.3% growth last month, its typical 1%+ growth returned in July. However, it grabbed the biggest percentage from Firefox rather than Internet Explorer. Firefox held 28% of the market this time last year and has dropped 4% in the past 12 months. It’s not devastating, but Chrome increased 12% during the same period.
I suspect Firefox has lost Mac and Linux users owing to memory consumption and stability issues. Performance is better on Windows and Firefox is a match for Chrome, but mainstream users possibly prefer the simpler experience offered by Google’s browser? Firefox remains the browser of choice for developers but, even though it offers better tools, many have switched to Chrome.
IE9 had a reasonable month although it’s rising at a slower rate than IE6, 7 and 8 are dropping. Microsoft’s TV and movie advertising is probably having some impact. I still smirk at the attempts to make IE look cool but it’s obviously working.
Safari continues to rise steadily and the ongoing success of Macs and iPads will be a major
contributer. I recently tweeted a question asking what make of PC I should buy and nearly every
respondent replied with “Apple”.
The browser market movements are illustrated in this great StatCounter video showing adoption rates between 2008 and 2012. The world starts blue (IE), flashes yellow (Firefox) with hints of red (Opera), then rapidly turns green (Chrome).
Mobile Browser Usage
July’s mobile usage rose a little to 11.12% of all web activity. Summer holidays and the Olympics will be having an effect.
The primary mobile browsing applications are:
- Android — 23.14% (up 1.17%)
- iPhone — 21.45% (up 0.46%)
- Opera Mini/Mobile – 19.42% (down 2.00%)
- Nokia browser — 10.15% (down 0.84%)
- UC Browser — 8.19% 8.51% (down 0.32%)
Android had a great month, especially when you consider that a proportion of Opera users and Dolphin (1.26%) also use the platform. Personally, I think either option is better than the stock Android browser.
Opera slipped another place and made a surprisingly large loss. However, remember the chart records usage — Opera is available on lower-specification phones, but those with 3G/4G smartphones are likely to use the web more. I doubt this is the start of a significant downward trend.
Another big loser is RIM. Blackberry slipped from a high of 19% in November 2010 to less than 5% today. Smartphone users are a fickle bunch!
Craig BucklerCraig is a freelance UK web consultant who built his first page for IE2.0 in 1995. Since that time he's been advocating standards, accessibility, and best-practice HTML5 techniques. He's created enterprise specifications, websites and online applications for companies and organisations including the UK Parliament, the European Parliament, the Department of Energy & Climate Change, Microsoft, and more. He's written more than 1,000 articles for SitePoint and you can find him @craigbuckler.
