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Here are the quarterly mobile (and sometimes desktop) browser stats for the twelve countries I’ve been following since Q4 2010. As always, the stats are according to StatCounter.
This post treats the first six countries; the second six will appear next week. Your donation for keeping this series up and running would be much appreciated.
Headlines:
Here’s an overview of the twelve countries, with their mobile share of all browsing, its change, the top browser, the number of important browsers, and the volatility in the browser market.
The largest browser must have at least 5% more market share than the second browser in order to count as top browser. If that’s not the case I count the country as a tie for all browsers that are within 10% of the largest.
| Country | Mobile share | ch | Top browser | # | Vola |
Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nigeria | 58% | -2 | Opera | 3 | 5% | |
| India | 47% | +7 | Opera | 5 | 8% | |
| South Korea | 21% | -2 | Android | 2 | 3% | |
| Indonesia | 20% | 0 | Opera | 3 | 5% | |
| UK | 11% | +1 | Safari | 3 | 2% | |
| US | 9% | 0 | Safari | 2 | 3% | |
| Netherlands | 6% | +1 | Tie | 2 | 2% | Safari, Android |
| Mexico | 5% | 0 | Tie | 4 | 8% | Safari, Android, Opera |
| China | 4% | 0 | UC | 3 | 11% | |
| Egypt | 4% | 0 | Tie | 4 | 8% | Opera, Nokia |
| Brazil | 3% | -1 | Opera | 4 | 15% | |
| Poland | 3% | 0 | Opera | 4 | 3% |
As usual I give the full browser stats, whether desktop or mobile, for countries that are at 20% mobile web or above. This quarter that means Nigeria, India, South Korea, and newcomer Indonesia.
For the first time since I started measuring mobile browsers back in Q4 2010, Nigeria’s mobile browser share of all browsing has decreased by two points to 58%. I will get back to this possible plateau of mobile browsing later on.
Browser-wise Opera (Mini) loses two points to Nokia (which probably means its Ovi proxy browser), and two to UC. There’s a proxy browser struggle going on, and Opera is losing, but that’s mostly because it doesn’t have much market share to gain. And it’s still more than nine times as large as the second browser.
| Browser | Q2 2012 | ch | Q1 2012 | ch | Q4 2011 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opera | 84% | -4 | 88% | 0 | 88% |
| Nokia | 9% | +2 | 7% | +1 | 6% |
| UC | 5% | +2 | 3% | +1 | 2% |
| Android | 1% | +1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Other | 1% | -1 | 2% | -2 | 4% |
| Volatility | 5% | 4% | |||
| Mobile | 58% | -2 | 60% | +6 | 54% |
If we study all Nigerian browsers, both mobile and desktop, we see Firefox as the largest winner. It wins a tiny bit of desktop share, but desktop as a whole gains some share, too, so that doubles Firefox’s gain. Opera is going down, both because it loses mobile share and because mobile as a whole loses market share.
| Browser | Q2 2012 | ch | Q1 2012 | ch | Q4 2011 | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opera | 50% | -4 | 54% | +5 | 49% | Mostly from mobile |
| Firefox | 19% | +2 | 17% | -3 | 20% | |
| IE | 11% | -2 | 13% | -2 | 15% | |
| Chrome | 7% | +1 | 6% | 0 | 6% | |
| Nokia | 5% | +1 | 4% | +1 | 3% | |
| Safari | 3% | +1 | 2% | 0 | 2% | Desktop |
| UC | 3% | +1 | 2% | +1 | 1% | |
| Other | 2% | 0 | 2% | -2 | 4% | |
| Volatility | 6% | 7% |
The Indian mobile browser market continues to grow tremendously. Here too, however, Opera loses share to UC. It’s too early to run sensational headlines like “Opera in trouble” because it doesn’t have any problems in any of the other markets we’ll study. Still, the loss of some market share in two of the largest mobile browser markets where it already holds a dominant position will not sit well in Oslo.
| Browser | Q2 2012 | ch | Q1 2012 | ch | Q4 2011 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opera | 36% | -7 | 43% | -5 | 48% |
| UC | 22% | +6 | 16% | +5 | 11% |
| Nokia | 19% | -1 | 20% | -1 | 21% |
| NetFront | 10% | +1 | 9% | +1 | 8% |
| Android | 5% | +1 | 4% | +2 | 2% |
| Dolfin | 3% | 0 | 3% | +1 | 2% |
| Samsung | 2% | 0 | 2% | 0 | 2% |
| Jasmine | 1% | 0 | 1% | 0 | 1% |
| Obigo | 1% | 0 | 1% | 0 | 1% |
| Safari | 1% | 0 | 1% | 0 | 1% |
| Other | 0 | 0 | 0 | -3 | 3% |
| Volatility | 8% | 9% | |||
| Mobile | 47% | +7 | 40% | +2 | 38% |
If we look at all Indian browsers, the first thing that amazes us is the fact that the UC browser has about as large a market share as IE. More importantly, if nothing changes UC will pass IE next quarter.
Other than that the desktop browsers all lose, and all winners are mobile browsers, due to the trmendous growth of mobile as a whole. It remains to be seen whether this growth will continue next quarter or whether India will arrive at a plateau similar to Nigeria.
| Browser | Q2 2012 | ch | Q1 2012 | ch | Q4 2011 | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chrome | 22% | -2 | 24% | +3 | 21% | |
| Opera | 19% | 0 | 19% | -1 | 20% | 2% from desktop |
| Firefox | 18% | -2 | 20% | -1 | 21% | |
| IE | 10% | -3 | 13% | -4 | 17% | |
| UC | 10% | +4 | 6% | +2 | 4% | |
| Nokia | 9% | +1 | 8% | 0 | 8% | |
| NetFront | 5% | +1 | 4% | +1 | 3% | |
| Android | 2% | 0 | 2% | +1 | 1% | |
| Safari | 1% | 0 | 1% | 0 | 1% | Desktop |
| Dolfin | 1% | 0 | 1% | 0 | 1% | |
| Samsung | 1% | 0 | 1% | 0 | 1% | |
| Other | 2% | +1 | 1% | -1 | 2% | |
| Volatility | 7% | 7% |
The South Korean mobile market remains pretty much Android-only, although Android loses a little share to Safari. Then again, Android has very little share to gain, so the only possible way is downward.
Also, South Korea loses some mobile market share overall. Is the plateau somewhere around 20%? Unlike the Nigerians, South Koreans have been using desktop computers forever, so I wouldn’t be surprised if mobile’s final tally is a bit lower here.
| Browser | Q2 2012 | ch | Q1 2012 | ch | Q4 2011 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Android | 88% | -2 | 90% | -2 | 92% |
| Safari | 12% | +3 | 9% | +2 | 7% |
| Other | 0 | -1 | 1% | 0 | 1% |
| Volatility | 3% | 2% | |||
| Mobile | 21% | -2 | 23% | +3 | 20% |
On the desktop side IE lost a lot of ground to Chrome, while Android loses a bit of ground due to its shrinkage and the shrinkage of the mobile market in general.
| Browser | Q2 2012 | ch | Q1 2012 | ch | Q4 2011 | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IE | 61% | -1 | 62% | -5 | 67% | |
| Android | 18% | -2 | 20% | +2 | 18% | |
| Chrome | 11% | +3 | 8% | +1 | 7% | |
| Safari | 5% | +1 | 4% | +1 | 3% | iOS + desktop |
| Firefox | 3% | 0 | 3% | 0 | 3% | |
| Other | 2% | -1 | 3% | +1 | 2% | |
| Volatility | 4% | 5% |
In Indonesia Opera gains some ground, while BlackBerry stabilises, albeit at only 4% where in early 2011 it had more like 30%.
Opera mainly wins share from Nokia (which I assume to mean Ovi), so the proxy browsing battle here currently favours Opera. That’s why it’s not true that Opera is in generic trouble all over the world.
| Browser | Q2 2012 | ch | Q1 2012 | ch | Q4 2011 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opera | 67% | +3 | 64% | -2 | 66% |
| Nokia | 16% | -4 | 20% | +1 | 19% |
| Android | 6% | 0 | 6% | +1 | 5% |
| BlackBerry | 4% | +1 | 3% | 0 | 3% |
| NetFront | 2% | -1 | 3% | 0 | 3% |
| UC | 2% | +1 | 1% | 0 | 1% |
| Safari | 1% | 0 | 1% | 0 | 1% |
| Other | 2% | 0 | 2% | 0 | 2% |
| Volatility | 5% | 2% | |||
| Mobile | 20% | 0 | 20% | +4 | 16% |
Little change here. Firefox, the desktop market leader, stabilises after some losses that mostly went to mobile.
| Browser | Q2 2012 | ch | Q1 2012 | ch | Q4 2011 | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Firefox | 54% | 0 | 54% | -6 | 60% | |
| Chrome | 20% | +1 | 19% | +1 | 18% | |
| Opera | 15% | +1 | 14% | +2 | 12% | |
| Nokia | 3% | -1 | 4% | +1 | 3% | |
| IE | 2% | -1 | 3% | 0 | 3% | |
| Safari | 2% | 0 | 2% | 0 | 2% | Desktop |
| Android | 1% | 0 | 1% | 0 | 1% | |
| BlackBerry | 1% | 0 | 1% | +1 | 0 | |
| Other | 2% | 0 | 2% | +1 | 1% | |
| Volatility | 2% | 6% |
The UK is BlackBerry’s sole remaining stronghold. It’s still second-largest browser there, with Android distinctly third. Something like this used to be the case in the US, too, but there BlackBerry fell off a cliff. It’s still holding on in the UK, and right now there seems to be no cliff looming ahead.
Also, the UK jumps ahead of the US when it comes to overall mobile browser market share.
| Browser | Q2 2012 | ch | Q1 2012 | ch | Q4 2011 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Safari | 43% | +1 | 42% | +1 | 41% |
| BlackBerry | 29% | -1 | 30% | -2 | 32% |
| Android | 22% | +1 | 21% | +1 | 20% |
| Opera | 3% | 0 | 3% | 0 | 3% |
| Nokia | 1% | 0 | 1% | -1 | 2% |
| IE | 1% | 0 | 1% | 0 | 1% |
| Other | 1% | -1 | 2% | +1 | 1% |
| Volatility | 2% | 3% | |||
| Mobile | 11% | +1 | 10% | +2 | 8% |
In the US Safari takes a decisive lead over Android, and none of the other browsers really matter any more.
| Browser | Q2 2012 | ch | Q1 2012 | ch | Q4 2011 | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Safari | 49% | +2 | 47% | +5 | 42% | |
| Android | 40% | -1 | 41% | +2 | 39% | |
| BlackBerry | 4% | -1 | 5% | -3 | 8% | |
| Nokia | 2% | +1 | 1% | 0 | 1% | |
| Opera | 2% | 0 | 2% | 0 | 2% | |
| IE | 1% | 0 | 1% | 0 | 1% | |
| UC | 0 | -1 | 1% | -3 | 4% | Q4 was a fluke caused by a detection error |
| Other | 2% | 0 | 2% | -1 | 3% | |
| Volatility | 3% | 7% | ||||
| Mobile | 9% | 0 | 9% | +1 | 8% | Mobile browsing as percentage of all browsing |
Next week we’ll continue this series with the other six countries.
This is the blog of Peter-Paul Koch, web developer, consultant, and trainer.
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