Browser usage stats – March 2011: Chrome and Windows 7 still growing
Chrome, the web browser developed by the search giant Google, has shown tremendous growth since it first launched at the beginning of September 2008.
A year after its launch, Chrome saw a greater share of usage online than Apple’s browser (Safari) and Opera, which have both been in the web browser market for far longer than Google Chrome.
While there is much discussion about the accuracy of measurement of browser and operating system usage by web-based metrics, the statistics do give an indication of trends.
Mozilla Firefox has lost some ground in the browser market over the last few months, but Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) browser has seen a sharp decline in usage over the last few years.
Microsoft released the latest version of their web browser, Internet Explorer 9, towards the middle of March 2011, which some analysts say will help stabilise or even reverse IE’s declining market share.
The table below shows the browser usage statistics for March 2011 as collected by NetApplications, Stat Counter, and W3Counter.
| Source | Internet Explorer | Firefox | Chrome | Safari | Opera |
| Net Applications | 55.92% | 21.80% | 11.57% | 6.61% | 2.15% |
| Stat Counter | 45.11% | 29.98% | 17.37% | 5.02% | 1.97% |
| W3Counter | 39.30% | 30.10% | 15.60% | 6.00% | 2.00% |
| Mean | 46.78% | 27.29% | 14.85% | 5.88% | 2.04% |
Stat Counter also allows statistics to be filtered by country. A look at South Africa’s trend graph indicates that IE is seeing a somewhat slower decline locally, though Chrome’s growth is still strong.
| March 2011 Browser usage – South Africa | |
| Browser | Usage share |
| Internet Explorer | 61.80% |
| Firefox | 20.64% |
| Chrome | 12.71% |
| Safari | 3.42% |
| Opera | 1.19% |
| Other | 0.26% |
| Mobile | 8.14% |
MyBroadband also collects statistics on the browsers and operating systems used to access the site through Google Analytics.
According to these statistics MyBroadband has far fewer Internet Explorer visitors than the global average, while Firefox and Chrome usage is a few percentage points higher.
| Browser usage share on MyBroadband from 1 February 2011 to 28 February 2011 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Browser usage share | Browser on operating system usage share | |||
| Rank | Browser | Share | Browser / Operating system | Share |
| 1 | Internet Explorer | 34.25% | Internet Explorer / Windows | 34.23% |
| 2 | Firefox | 31.70% | Firefox / Windows | 27.68% |
| 3 | Chrome | 20.77% | Chrome / Windows | 18.47% |
| 4 | Safari | 6.28% | Opera Mini / (not set) | 3.31% |
| 5 | Opera Mini | 3.61% | Safari / Macintosh | 3.07% |
| 6 | Opera | 2.11% | Firefox / Linux | 2.35% |
| 7 | Mozilla Compatible Agent | 0.42% | Opera / Windows | 1.84% |
| 8 | BlackBerry8520 | 0.18% | Firefox / Macintosh | 1.65% |
| 9 | BlackBerry9700 | 0.12% | Chrome / Linux | 1.25% |
| 10 | IE with Chrome Frame | 0.09% | Safari / iPhone | 1.16% |
The use of Opera Mini, a web browser typically used on mobile devices, still ranks highly on MyBroadband.
Stat Counter also has a measure comparing desktop browser usage against mobile browser usage which shows a steady increase from December 2008 to today. Worldwide mobile browser usage is 4.7% according to Stat Counter.
In South Africa mobile browser usage is almost double that of the global usage statistic at 8.14%.
Browser usage stats – March 2011: Chrome and Windows 7 still growing << Comments and views
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