Browser Trends February 2013

Where did January go? You may still be on your traditional post-festivity detox, but the browser chart stops for nothing! Let’s look at the latest market statistics according to StatCounter…

Worldwide Browser Statistics December 2012 to January 2013

The following table shows browser usage movements during the past month.

Browser	December	January	change	relative
IE (all)	30.78%	30.70%	-0.08%	-0.30%
IE 9.0+	18.13%	18.52%	+0.39%	+2.20%
IE 8.0	11.48%	11.12%	-0.36%	-3.10%
IE 7.0	0.79%	0.73%	-0.06%	-7.60%
IE 6.0	0.38%	0.33%	-0.05%	-13.20%
Firefox	21.89%	21.43%	-0.46%	-2.10%
Chrome	36.46%	36.55%	+0.09%	+0.20%
Safari	7.92%	8.27%	+0.35%	+4.40%
Opera	1.24%	1.19%	-0.05%	-4.00%
Others	1.71%	1.86%	+0.15%	+8.80%

Worldwide Browser Statistics January 2012 to January 2013

The following table shows browser usage movements during the past twelve months:

Browser	January 2012	January 2013	change	relative
IE (all)	37.46%	30.70%	-6.76%	-18.00%
IE 9.0+	11.45%	18.52%	+7.07%	+61.70%
IE 8.0	20.82%	11.12%	-9.70%	-46.60%
IE 7.0	3.63%	0.73%	-2.90%	-79.90%
IE 6.0	1.56%	0.33%	-1.23%	-78.80%
Firefox	24.78%	21.43%	-3.35%	-13.50%
Chrome	28.45%	36.55%	+8.10%	+28.50%
Safari	6.61%	8.27%	+1.66%	+25.10%
Opera	1.96%	1.19%	-0.77%	-39.30%
Others	0.74%	1.86%	+1.12%	+151.40%

The tables show market share estimates for desktop browsers. The ‘change’ column is the absolute increase or decrease in market share. The ‘relative’ column indicates the proportional change, i.e. another 13.2% of IE6 users abandoned the browser last month. There are several caveats so I recommend you read How Browser Market Share is Calculated.

January means back to business: Microsoft’s domain. The fastest growing browser last month was IE10 with a 0.35% rise. In relative terms, it had a 56% jump and holds just under 1% of the market. While Windows 8 was not Microsoft’s most triumphant OS launch, people are starting to use it. IE10 isn’t particularly exciting, but it’s a fine browser.

Overall, IE dropped slightly; IE9 increased a little, but older versions fell 0.47%. Within a month, the combined total for IE6 and IE7 should fall below 1% but you should note that, for now, they’re used by more people than IE10.

Safari enjoyed an almost identical increase to IE10 and commands 8.27% of the market. The iPad version is responsible for 3.41% of the market — impressive.

Chrome managed a small jump during January, but it’s becoming more difficult to entice new users. Much of Chrome’s growth has come from legacy IE user migration but that pool is rapidly evaporating. That said, it did far better than Firefox which saw the biggest overall fall.

Finally, we have Opera. I like the plucky little browser but its user base has diminished from just under 2% to just over 1% in the last twelve months. Opera’s certainly a match for the competition but no longer enjoys significant benefits. However, as a professional web developer, you need Opera installed. Give it a go — you may prefer it.

Mobile Browser Usage

Mobile usage dropped a fraction to 14.13% of all web activity during January.

The primary mobile browsing applications:

Android — 30.85% (up 2.57%)
iPhone — 23.08% (up 2.44%)
Opera Mini/Mobile – 15.35% (down 1.59%)
UC Browser — 9.75% (down 0.45%)
Nokia browser — 7.46% (down 1.62%)

It’s easy to spot evidence of December gift-giving! Smart phone devices have increased at the expense of feature phone browsers.

Blackberry is at #6 with a 3.1% market share. The new Q10 and Z10 devices received a warm welcome but it will take a monumental shift in user opinion to take the Blackberry browser back to the top of the chart. Can it succeed?