Battle of the mobile browsers: Opera vs. Safari
Here's the latest on the four-way browser race to dominate the mobile Web.
The main contenders are
- Apple's (AAPL) Mobile Safari, running on the iPhone and iPod touch
- Opera Software's Opera Mobile, running on a variety of Microsoft's (MSFT) Windows Mobile devices
- Nokia's (NOK) Web Browser, running on a variety of Symbian phones
- Research in Motion's (RIMM) BlackBerry Browser
According to a report issued Tuesday by StatCounter, a Dublin-based Web tracking service, Opera Mobile is back on top, with a 24.6% worldwide share to Mobile Safari's 22.3%.
"Opera began the year in number one slot but iPhone overtook it in February. May saw Opera regain the number one position," writes StatCounter CEO Aodhan Cullen. "It will be fascinating to watch how this battle plays out over the year."
The report was picked up by Reuters and eventually made its way to the front page of Techmeme.
The problem, as the chart below suggests, is that StatCounter is comparing all the devices that run Windows Mobile with only one of the devices that run Mobile Safari. When the iPod touch is factored in to their numbers, Apple's share rises to 37.2% — which puts it well in the lead.
Things get even more complicated when StatCounter's data are compared with rival Net Applications'. As Stephen Withers reports today on ITWire.com, Net Applications's May report showed the iPhone OS with a 65% share. Withers can't explain the discrepancy entirely, but he makes a valiant effort. See Opera is the top mobile browser – not!
Chart courtesy of StatCounter. Annotated by Tech.Blorge.
Do we know if, as apps have taken off, whether, that is siphoning off what would normally have been iPhone mobile Safari browsing?
If apple would not ban anything else than their nazi arayan Safari browser on iPhone, a lot of users would run Opera Mobile/Opera mini on iPhone!
it is a nightmare for writing different versions to support different browsers so the less brower differences the better it is writing content applications.
Safari is OSX oriented and Opera is Windows oriented but Safari does bend over backwards for Windows compatibility yet Opera often tries to make compatibility a difficult issue.
iTouch can go wireless with a USB wireless modem which allows it to talk cheaply over Skype too.
The pure massive growing number of appStore applications will propel the number of iPhone and iTouch devices in 2009-2010, making the Safari the number one mobile browser by far. Applications exploiting the advanced features of the iPhone and iTouch have no option but to focus on the Safari, which spans most mainstream platforms such as Windows, Unix and Linux.
Shouldn't they really compare all devices running WebKit-based browsers (which includes Mobile Safari) against all devices running Opera-based browsers?
Get off the Apple bandwagon, Philip. Last time, I checked the iTouch could not connect to the Internet via a cellular network. Rather than trying to find loopholes, why don't you right about how competition is good for the industry and how the mobile Internet is growing.
Upon further review, the results do seem to take into account Opera Mobile, though it is not clear if it also reflects the DSi.
Furthermore, Opera Mobile (the most recent version) is for Windows Mobile but Opera Mini covers Java and Android phones. That may help rectify some of the discrepancy in the OS stats.
The main issue with this is that safari is installed by default on the iphone and touch. Opera is something that you have to download or if the manufacture has integrated it into the phone set like htc does.
But the Statcounter numbers do not seem to reflect Opera's other mobile browser (Opera Mobile with 140+ million deployments) or Opera's browser for other mobile devices like the DSi (which does not run Opera Mini).
That doesn't make sense…. how can you separate the ipod touch and iphone's safari? they're the exact same browser!
Microsoft's Opera? From when? Opera is not from Microsoft.
ex ped: Right you are. Opera Software. Fixed.
opera will win out with it's one web vision on all devices that it already offers – unlike apple and microsoft it does not try to dominate the marketplace. it works with a huge number of operators and mobile phone manufacturers who will never put safari on their phones. That said for Apple lovers it's great but inmy opinion, there's a ceiling to how far it can go.