Web browser war: The early 2013 report
Summary: On desktops, it's a three-way fight with Internet Explorer or Chrome in the lead, depending on whose numbers you believe; but on mobile devices, it's either Safari or the native Android browser in first place.
The latest NetMarketShare browser numbers are in for March 2013. They reveal a three-way battle for the hearts and minds of PC web browser users, but on tablets and smartphones, Safari is leading by a wide margin. StatCounter, however, has Chrome and the Android native browser leading respectively.
Why the differences? The two most popular web browser counters use different methodologies.
NetMarketShare gathers its data from approximately 40,000 websites that use Net Applications (its parent company), HitsLink analytics service, and SharePost bookmarking service. They track 160 million visits a month, but only count visitors to a particular site once per day. That data is then massaged by Net Applications depending on the traffic it believes comes from a particular country and the number of internet users per country, according to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). So for example, as the company explains, "If our global data shows that Brazil represents 2 percent of our traffic, and the CIA table shows Brazil to represent 4 percent of global internet traffic, we will count each unique visitor from Brazil twice."
StatCounter also collects data from its customers, but it uses a much larger sample. StatCounter tracks over 3 million webs sites that use its StatCounter traffic analysis service. The company claims to follow over 15 billion page views per month. In addition, StatCounter doesn't massage its data. Instead, it bases its numbers entirely on raw page hits.
Here's how it works. Say ZDNet tracks web browsers using both Net Application and StatCounter's technologies. If you visited ZDNet 20-times in a day from your office in Rio de Janeiro, NetMarketShare would register your web browser visiting the site twice. StatCounter, on the other hand, would count it as 20 separate hits. This may not seem like it would make much difference, but as their respective numbers shows, it does.
So with no further adieu, here are the latest web browser statistics:
By NetMarketShare's PC count, Internet Explorer (IE) squeezed out a tiny 0.01 percent gain, from 55.82 percent to 55.83 percent. In second place, Firefox moved up by 0.09 percent, from 20.12-percent to 20.21-percent. Third-place Chrome gained the most with a modest jump of 0.18 points from 16.27 percent to 16.45 percent.
All this growth came at the expense of the trailing pair of web browsers: Safari, which dropped 0.11 percent to 5.31 percent, and Opera, which fell 0.08 percentage points to 0.46 percent.
Of course, StatCounter sees March's data in an entirely different light. By their numbers, Chrome led in March with 38.07 percent, followed by IE with 29.3 percent, and then Firefox with 20.8 percent. Bringing up the rear, Safari came in with 8.5 percent, and Opera limped in last with 1.17 percent.
When it comes to smartphones and tablets, the two also disagree. By NetMarketShare's reckoning, Safari jumped up to 61.79 percent from 55.41 percent in February. The native Android browser came in second place with 21.86 percent share, and Opera Mini stayed in third place with 8.4 percent. The two most popular web browsers on the desktop? Chrome and IE? They barely register, with Chrome coming in fourth at 2.43 percent and IE with 1.99 percent.
StatCounter sees a vastly different mobile web browsing world. From StatCounter's viewpoint, Android's in first with 30.78 percent. It's followed by Safari on the iPhone at 24.44 percent. Even if you add in Safari on the iPod touch, Apple's mobile web-browsing offering still comes in at second place with 27.05 percent.
Opera takes third with 15.54 percent. It's followed by the UC Browser, a multi-platform mobile browser, with 8.27 percent, and fifth place went to Nokia with 6.96 percent. StatCounter does agree with NetMarketShare on one point: Neither Chrome nor IE matter in the mobile space.
So which numbers do you believe? I can argue for either set, but personally, I find that StatCounter agrees more with the numbers I see from my own websites using Google Analytics.
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Talkback
Three way battle on the PC?
April Fools
Only SJVN would suggest using statcounter for browsermeasurements.
IE10 share e is listed in the categorie 'unknown'
So the stats for IE in total do not include IE10 either.
Laughable
Thanks for the explanation of the 2 methodologies
From what you've described, you can comfortably believe BOTH numbers because they measure completely different things.
NetMarketShare is tracking marketshare: how many users are using which browser?
StatCounter is tracking usage: how often is which browser being used?
Car marketshare: how many people own a Ford vs Chevrolet vs Honda vs Toyota etc.
Car usage: how many miles are driven in a Ford vs Chevrolet vs Honda vs Toyota etc.
If in your particular city, if most police, taxi, and delivery / courier vehicles are Fords but everyone else buys Honda grocery getters, you could have Honda with the higher marketshare but Fords with the higher usage. Both numbers are accurate and not the least bit contradictory.
So to answer your question:
"So, which numbers do you believe?"
Both. What the numbers suggest is that while most desktop users use IE, heavy desktop users use Chrome.
This is actually quite interesting because recently, someone tried to suggest that Chromebooks had quite a large marketshare because a disproportionate amount of HTTP traffic was being requested by Chromebooks. I argued that you can't determine marketshare from usage because you have to assume that usage patterns are equal between devices. Clearly, usage patterns are NOT equal between browsers and clearly it appears that people who use Chrome are far bigger users of HTTP than people who use any other browser. I'm quite happy to see these statistics because it proves me right: you CAN'T determine what Chromebook marketshare is (number of users who use Chromebooks) based on HTTP usage.
WRONG
it says most desktop users have IE (according to your own logic), open it once, download their favorite browser then kiss a goodbye to IE :\
If that's true, that's great news for Microsoft
This would imply that Windows 8 is selling extremely well if month after month, 55% of web users are using a brand new copy of Windows.
Want to double down on this theory of yours?
IE is only there because its there........
And your full of hot air regarding W-8.....unless that was your idea of a April fools joke ment to prp up Loverock Davidson to get him all excited ............
Market share figures
In fact, I personally use it on any Windows pc and prefer Firefox on the mac and Linux. Chrome is nothing but a piece of malware, supporting Google's data mining activities, therfore it won't run on any of my devices ever. Unless they ripp out the phone home stuff, kind of like the chromium browser, the open source cousin.
So fun to work with stats
February 2013
Internet Explorer 13.5 %, Firefox 29.6 %, Chrome 50.0 %
Safari 4.1 %, Opera 1.8 %
Ouch! Fanbois......
Here is fun point my daughter's laptop came with IE yet she uses Firefox. My son's came with IE, he uses Chrome.
so?
Browser?
IE in Wikimedia non-mobiles
18,25/79,4 x 100% = 22,99%
Less than 1 of 3 Windows user is using IE.
Errr.....
So can we assume...
Choices
w3schools?
W3Schools methedology is simple
They don't massage the numbers to adjust them by country, religion or of the user's favorite color.
How *representative* their experience is is open to question -- but they're not claiming to be representative.
It's well known fact that those experienced computer users...
Browser wars.
I'm just guessing...