It’s been one month since we last looked at the browser market. Since then, Firefox 12 and Chrome 18 were released and Microsoft has embarked on an aggressive television, movie and online marketing campaign for IE9. Has any of this affected usage patterns in the worldwide StatCounter statistics?…

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 12.7% of IE6 users abandoned the browser last month. There are several caveats so I recommend you read How Browser Market Share is Calculated.

Chrome’s monthly growth has fallen below 1% for the first time since October 2011. Other vendors dream about a market share increase of 0.37% but it’s unusually low for Chrome. I’m not convinced adoption rates have begun to plateau and it could be a statistical blip. That said, the advantages Chrome holds over the competition are more marginal than they’ve ever been.

This month’s biggest winner is IE9 and it’s risen 3.6% since the start of March. Three factors have contributed to it’s success:

1. Automated browser updates.
2. Microsoft’s glossy marketing campaign.
3. Businesses migrating to Windows Vista/7.

However, Microsoft cannot be complacent. IE8 is falling faster than IE9′s gains and total IE usage dropped by 0.74%. Chrome is still poised to overtake during the summer of 2012.

Safari had another good month and the browser is slowly creeping toward double-digit usage figures. The iPad accounts for 2.12% of the 7.14% total which means it now has more users than IE6.

Firefox and Opera’s market share barely changed. Perhaps this isn’t surprising; there are few major differences between the top five browsers and we could be entering a period of stability with little significant movement in browser market.

Mobile Browser Usage

April’s mobile usage increased to 9.58% of all web activity. This is partly owing to better weather in the northern hemisphere — although the UK had its wettest April for 100 years.

The primary mobile browsing applications are:

1. Opera Mini/Mobile — 21.52% (down 1.34%)
2. Android — 21.31% (up 0.15%)
3. iPhone — 20.04% (down 0.06%)
4. Nokia browser — 11.42% (down 0.44%)
5. UC Browser — 7.77% (up 1.42%)

There’s little change within the top five although UC Browser has helped itself to another slice of Blackberry.

While it’s great to see healthy competition in the mobile market, it remains frustratingly difficult to test web sites and applications on a range of popular devices. Do you bother?

We’re a quarter of the way through 2012 so it’s time to take another look at the worldwide browser market. Last month was bad for Microsoft and IE lost almost two percentage points — mostly to Google Chrome. Android also overtook Opera to become the most-used mobile browser. Has any company been made to look foolish in April’s worldwide StatCounter statistics?…

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 9.5% of IE6 users abandoned the browser last month. There are several caveats so I recommend you read How Browser Market Share is Calculated.

It’s the same old story. Chrome leaped another 1% primarily at the expense of Internet Explorer. If we look at individual versions, Chrome 17 is the world’s most-used browser with a 27.2% share. IE8 is far behind in second place with 16.0%. At best, Microsoft has two or three months before Chrome overtakes IE’s total and we crown a new champion for the first time in 13 years.

There’s some consolation for Microsoft; IE9 was the fastest growing browser in March 2012. It gained another 2.5% of the market to increase its user base by 20% and become the most-used version in Europe and the US. Many users would have been upgrading XP to Vista/7 which is good for the company’s bottom line.

However, IE8 is dropping fast — and by more than I expected. Many of us doom-mongers prophesied IE8 would morph into another IE6 following Microsoft’s decision to abandon XP users. The browser’s unlikely to become irrelevant for a while but it’s almost certain to reach single-figures within a few months.

IE6 usage in China is still a concern and it retains almost 26% of the market. Elsewhere, IE6 and 7 combined share has dropped to 4.25% — or fewer than one in 20 users. You should always check your site’s figures but we’ve reached a point where there’s no need to spend a disproportionate amount of time developing and testing the browsers. IE6 and 7 are dead to me, but still rise like zombies now and again.

Firefox holds 25%. Version 11 has reached 6% within a few weeks and the 4+ line is growing steadily. That said, version 3 and below are dropping at a similar rate.

Both Safari and Opera dropped although statistical fluctuations are amplified by their relatively low figures. They’ll probably regain that loss next month.

Mobile Browser Usage

March’s mobile usage increased to 8.99% of all web activity.

The primary mobile browsing applications are:

1. Opera Mini/Mobile — 22.86% (up 1.16%)
2. Android — 21.16% (down 1.51%)
3. iPhone — 20.10% (down 0.96%)
4. Nokia browser — 11.86% 11.24% (up 0.62%)
5. UC Browser — 6.35% (up 0.45%)

There’s more bad news for Blackberry. It dropped 0.35% to 6.18% and has been knocked out of the top five by UC Browser — an independent application for most platforms which users have to choose and install.

I hope Android enjoyed its single month at the top of the chart because Opera has regained the crown again. There’s a three-way tie between Opera, Android and the iPhone which highlights healthy competition in the market. Don’t make the mistake that everyone’s using the same phone as you!