Safari iOS bigger than Firefox; non-Google Chromia bigger than Safari Mac

With my recent Chromia research in mind it’s time to study the browser stats for Q3 and Q4 2014, as always according to StatCounter. For the first time I give consolidated browser stats across all devices.

Headlines:

Totals

The first table aggregates desktop, mobile and tablet data. I made two assumptions:

  1. I split Chrome on mobile and tablet equally between Google Chrome and Other Chromia. In last week’s count the other ones were actually at 58%, but I’m not sure how representative that is, and I also think that the other Chromia started out 2014 as fairly small and grew during the year. 50% is a nice average.
  2. I assume that Opera on mobile and tablet is 90% Opera Mini and 10% Opera Mobile (which I count with Opera full).

With that out of the way, here are the stats:

Global browser stats, all devices
Browser Q4 2014 ch Q3 2014 ch Q2 2014 ch Q1 2014
Google Chrome 37% +2 35% -1 36% +1 35%
IE 14% -2 16% 0 16% -2 18%
Safari iOS 12% +1 11% +1 10% +1 9%
Firefox 11% -1 12% -2 14% 0 14%
Android WebKit 7% 0 7% 0 7% 0 7%
Other Chromia 5% +1 4% +1 3% +1 2%
Safari Mac 3% 0 3% 0 3% -1 4%
UC 3% 0 3% 0 3% 0 3%
Opera Mini 3% 0 3% 0 3% 0 3%
Opera full 1% 0 1% 0 1% 0 1%
Nokia 1% 0 1% 0 1% 0 1%
Other 3% -1 4% +1 3% 0 3%
Volatility 4% 3% 3%

Even with half of mobile Chrome assigned to Other Chromia, Google Chrome is still gaining market share. So does Safari iOS, while IE and Firefox lose, to the point where Firefox and Safari iOS swapped places in Q4.

Device types

Why is that? It’s mostly due to desktop as a whole losing market share to mobile, and IE and especially Firefox are just not very important on mobile.

Global device stats
Devices Q4 2014 ch Q3 2014 ch Q2 2014 ch Q1 2014
Desktop 62% -3 65% -4 69% -2 71%
Mobile 31% +3 28% +3 25% +3 22%
Tablet 7% 0 7% +1 6% 0 6%
Other 0 0 0 0 0 -1 1%
Volatility 3% 4% 3%

As has been widely reported tablet sales are dwindling. This is reflected in the stats: tablets as a whole hardly won any market share in 2014. I doubt whether 2015 will bring much relief. I assume that mobile will profit most from desktop’s continuing decline.

Rendering engines

While we’re at it we can also calculate the five rendering engines’ shares:

Global rendering engine stats
Engine Q4 2014 ch Q3 2014 ch Q2 2014 ch Q1 2014
Blink 43% +3 40% 0 40% +2 38%
WebKit 26% +1 25% +1 24% 0 24%
MSHTML 14% -2 16% 0 16% -2 18%
Gecko 11% -1 12% -2 14% 0 14%
Presto 3% 0 3% 0 3% 0 3%
Various 3% -1 4% +1 3% 0 3%
Volatility 4% 2% 2%

WebKit’s growth is due to Safari on iOS, which profits from the continued growth of mobile.

I would like Blink to stay below 50%. I’m not sure if I’m going to get my wish, though.

Mobile

On mobile the victory of the Chromia is now complete. Collectively, they are the largest browser, edging past Safari in Q4. As I said before I guesstimate that about 50% is Google Chrome; the rest other Chromia.

Android WebKit is starting its slide downward, and good riddance, too. Still, it’s far too early to stop testing on it; it still holds one fifth of the mobile browser market.

Global browser stats, mobile only
Browser Q4 2014 ch Q3 2014 ch Q2 2014 ch Q1 2014
Chromia 29% +6 23% +5 18% +7 11%
Safari 24% 0 24% +1 23% +1 22%
Android 20% -2 22% -3 25% -1 26%
UC 10% 0 10% 0 10% -1 11%
Opera 9% -2 11% -1 12% -1 13%
Nokia 3% -1 4% 0 4% -2 6%
IE 2% 0 2% 0 2% 0 2%
BlackBerry 1% 0 1% -1 2% 0 2%
NetFront 1% 0 1% -1 2% 0 2%
Other 1% -1 2% 0 2% -3 5%
Volatility 6% 6% 8%
Mobile 31% +3 28% +3 25% +2 23%

Desktop

Desktop is predictable: Chrome (now only Google Chrome) continues to grow; in 2014 it took 2% each from IE and Firefox. Since desktop as a whole continues to decline this is a serious problem to IE and Firefox, who don’t have much of a presence in mobile.

Global browser stats, desktop only
Browser Q4 2014 ch Q3 2014 ch Q2 2014 ch Q1 2014
Chrome 51% +2 49% +1 48% +1 47%
IE 22% -1 23% 0 23% -2 25%
Firefox 18% -1 19% -1 20% 0 20%
Safari 5% 0 5% 0 5% 0 5%
Opera 1% 0 1% 0 1% 0 1%
Others 3% 0 3% 0 3% +1 2%
Volatility 2% 1% 2%
Desktop 62% -3 65% -4 69% -2 71%

Tablet

Finally tablets; as expected, Safari still outright owns this market. It is slowly slipping downward, but that’s mostly because it doesn’t have much room to go up. Right not it’s at two thirds of the tablet market.

Global browser stats, tablet only
Browser Q4 2014 ch Q3 2014 ch Q2 2014 ch Q1 2014
Safari 65% -3 68% +1 67% -1 68%
Android 16% +2 14% -1 15% -1 16%
Chrome 13% +1 12% 0 12% +3 9%
Silk 2% -1 3% 0 3% 0 3%
UC 1% +1 - - - - -
Opera 1% 0 1% 0 1% 0 1%
Firefox 1% 0 1% 0 1% 0 1%
Others 1% 0 1% 0 1% -1 2%
Volatility 4% 2% 3%
Tablet 7% 0 7% +1 6% 0 6%

Also note that Android WebKit is still more important than Chromium in the tablet space. That’ll change in 2015, but it’s worth keeping in mind for now.

This is the blog of Peter-Paul Koch, web developer, consultant, and trainer. You can also follow him on Twitter or Mastodon.
Atom RSS

If you like this blog, why not donate a little bit of money to help me pay my bills?

Categories: