IE9 up as desktop browser shares flatline
Microsoft's browser battles back amid stagnating competition while mobile blooms
According to analytics and internet market research firm Net Applications, browsing figures are again throwing up some surprises. The organisation stated that mobile browsing has for the first time exceeded 10 per cent in its sample, which "actually underestimates the total amount of browsing share on mobile devices, since our sample does not contain data on apps, like maps". Vincent Vizzaccaro of EVP Marketing, suggested the influx of new devices perhaps accounted for the surge and was an ongoing trend: "With the new iPad mini, iPhone 5, Kindle Fires, Samsung Galaxy devices, along with an expected strong push by the new Microsoft Surface, the growth in mobile and tablet usage compared to desktop usage should continue to grow rapidly for the foreseeable future."
On the desktop, too, there were some surprises. IE9 has surpassed a 50 per cent share on Windows 7 in the US, and IE as a whole still holds over half of the overall market. Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Opera either had minor recent losses or remained essentially static in terms of share, although Net Applications noted Chrome prerendering is becoming more prevalent, now accounting for 11.1 per cent of its sample of websites – way up from 4.3 percent in February.
Although Internet Explorer had for a long time been the bane of web developers and other technical folk, hence concerted efforts to get users to switch, its gradual strengthening suggests this is no longer the case. Edgeofmyseat.com director Drew McLellan concurred: "Convincing someone to change software is a big commitment, as you then have to act as their technical support person. If they use a lot of JavaScript-intensive sites, I might suggest Google Chrome, and Firefox has a huge wealth of add-ons available, but for general casual web browsing, IE does a solid job and most users would have no need to switch. I'd struggle to find a good reason why most users would need to switch to something else if they're happy with what IE provides."
3 comments
Comment: 1
For instance, StatCounter shows Chrome overtaking all version of IE a few months ago http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-ww-monthly-201110-201211
Also W3Counter shows the same http://www.w3counter.com/globalstats.php
Both StatCounter and W3Counter record page hits, and sample data from far more websites than NetApplications.
Comment: 2
Your suggestion is a bit like saying that there are less Ford's doing more miles than more VW's doing less miles, so the Ford must be the more popular vehicle.
Comment: 3
Say you have a website with 3 users, user a) and user b) each visit the website just once using IE, user c) visits the site 98 times using Chrome. Going by NetApplications, the market-share would be 66.6% for IE and 33.3% for Chrome, but StatCounter and others would show 2% for IE and 98% for Chrome. Now say you were forced at gun point to completely drop support for one browser, which would you choose? If you relied on NetApplications you would drop support for Chrome, but you've just alienated a keen, avid (and potentially valuable) user, but still allow a couple of users who visited once, only to never return.
Yes, it's a contrived example, but I hope it demonstrates the difference between measuring raw internet users vs page hits. If it's mostly Chrome/Firefox uses coming back to visit your webpage again and again, then you should be concentrating on catering to them, as they're actively more engaged in your site and more likely to generate conversions/revenue (buy something, click on an ad etc.). Indeed, stats show this to be the case across the board with non-IE users being more internet savvy and visiting more websites more often.
In your car example, if loads of people had VWs but just left them at home, then there would be mostly Fords on the road, so maybe the transport department should dedicate more resources to helping them than VW owners.