The mobile web browser usage is growing; I guess we all know that! Statistics from various sources have shown that people are using various types of mobile devices to browse the web. I suppose the main thrust in increased mobile usage for web browsing has come after the launch of iPhone. Why? Because it's way better than any other device when it comes browsing the web from a mobile device. I say this from personal experience and support my claim with the numbers below.
I was first introduced to the world of mobile browsing through the Nokia 61i, a phone I used for a bit of time before the iPhone. In the initial few weeks whenever I got a chance I could be caught surfing the web on my cellphone. But, once the initial enthusiasm died, I hardly ever used it for web browsing - email yes, browsing negligible. And I attribute it to three things - the small screen, the horrid scrolling and mouse movement and lastly, the frequent browser crashing.
People told me to download and install the mobile version of Opera to overcome the last problem but by that time, I guess, I had had my fill. I then got an iPhone and that changed the impression I had developed. Web browsing on the iPhone was so much more fun. I could read web pages in landscape and portrait modes, the screen was larger, there was no mouse just the great touch screen and yes, "pinching" was one splendid feature.
Most popular device for mobile web browsing - the iPhone
Browsing the web with the iPhone is a different experience altogether. The sturdy Safari web browser as well as the larger screen and the ability to zoom in with "pinch" brought the mobile browsing fervour back! And it's not just me. If you check the mobile usage statistics below, you'll find that more people use the iPhone for browsing the web than any other device. Considering the number of iPhones is much lesser than all other mobile devices put together, that's one great usage statistic, right? The iPhone web browsing experience is definitely a notch above the rest.
According to Market Share the iPhone has almost a 65% usage leaving all the others far behind. Also, they don't mention the usage of iPod Touch. Has that been clubbed with the iPhone or they have simply not included it?
Most popular mobile web brower - Safari on iPhone
Since the iPhone is most used web browsing device, it's only logical to deduce that Safari is the clear winner when it comes to the mobile web browsers line up.
However, even though Safari is the most popular mobile web browser in the world it doesn't show the same kind of usage from conventional computers (Macs and Windows). In fact, usage statistics for Safari installed on computers have shown only a slight increase over the years. So what makes iPhone with its Safari web browser such a clear choice when it comes to mobile browsing? I suppose it's the convenience, stability and the tons of apps available for the device.
On my web site, the usage of Safari web browser for the last five months are shown below. These are numbers and not percentages. Agreed the numbers are quite low but look at the dramatic increase. Couple this with the exponential line we see for Playstation browser usage statistics we can quickly realize that mobile is gaining ground fast.
By the way, in addition to the iPhone and iPod Touch, I find visitors using Safari from SymbianOS (example, cellphones from Samsung) and Android. The total number of visitors with the Safari mobile browser was a little over 1000.
Google is the most popular search engine
Google is the leading search engine. And it continues its dominance in the mobile searches space too. This, come to think of it, is no big surprise because it's the default search engine on iPhone which tops the list of mobile devices used for web browsing. However, compared to its web sibling, Google's share for mobile browsing is more than 97%!
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