I'm writing a CSS book

JavaScript archives Compatibility CSS coaching Thidrekssaga QuirksBlog Donations Politics Mobile About COH

sitemapcontact

Mobile browser shares 4/4

We close off our survey of the mobile browser market shares of twelve countries: Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Poland, South Korea, the UK, and the US. In all countries I studied the Q4 2010 aggregate stats and compared them to the Q3 ones.

In part 1 we studied three developing nations that each had Opera as their leading browser; in part 2 we discussed the US, the UK, and South Korea. Part 3 took a look at South America and China.

In this final entry we’ll study the Netherlands, the only market where Safari has an absolute majority, and two more Opera/Nokia markets: Egypt and Poland. We close off with an overview table.

Netherlands

Stats.

The Netherlands is more-or-less representative for the average Western European country (except the UK), as well as Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, with Safari in the lead and up until fairly recently overwhelmingly dominant. Still, Safari is losing a bit of ground, while Android and BlackBerry win market share this quarter. A well-known pattern by now.

The Dutch mobile browser market behaves exactly like the US pundit class has decreed in its infinite wisdom: Safari leading, Android coming up strong, Nokia slipping, and BlackBerry irrelevant. All other countries, including the US, seem to have missed that memo.

Egypt

Stats.

In Egypt we find Opera in the lead once more, with Nokia a distant second and the rest irrelevant. But Egyptians don’t really surf the web from their mobile phones all that much, contrary to the developing nations we discussed in part 1.

Poland

Stats.

Poland, finally, shows the well-known Opera/Nokia pattern, but with Safari and Android directly behind them and Android winning share from Safari. That kind of fits an Eastern European country: modern, but not quite up to Western European standards of living (and phone buying).

Poland has four browsers at or above 10% market share, while all other countries we studied have only two or three above that threshold.

Overview

To close off this series, here’s an overview table of the five big browsers in the twelve countries. Only Nokia and Opera occur in all twelve of them, and despite its gains in Q4 BlackBerry occurs in only six of the twelve, less than Safari and Android.

I’m going to repeat these reports when the Q1 figures are in.