News - Android web-browser now most popular in the mobile segment

[HEXUS]

Latest stats place the Android web-browser on top.

Read more.

[crossy]

I've got a couple of web browsers on my Android tablet, and Opera plus Firefox on my phone (also Android) because I find some browser work better with certain sites.

That said, I find I'm using Opera less and less because there's been some weird issues with it. For example, today I tried looking for prices in Google Shopping (in Classic view) for a Galaxy S2 on my phone, only to be told that there was no such search term. When I repeated the process in the stock browser I got what I wanted. I've also had issues with timeouts, and "interesting" rendering of some pages with Opera.

Fascinated to see that the iPod Touch figures seem to be (more or less) holding steady. I got the distinct impression that shops were really pushing the Touch (e.g. much local HMV always seems to have one offer or another on it month on month). I'd also suggest that it's probably a pleasing set of figures for Apple, given that there are reputedly more Android phones out there than iPhones.

[cheesemp]

I use the Dolphin browser on my droid. Is that this Dolfin browser mentioned (a typo) or does Dolphin get shown as Android (I know it uses the same components under the hood)?

[Scribe]

I've got a couple of web browsers on my Android tablet, and Opera plus Firefox on my phone (also Android) because I find some browser work better with certain sites.

That said, I find I'm using Opera less and less because there's been some weird issues with it. For example, today I tried looking for prices in Google Shopping (in Classic view) for a Galaxy S2 on my phone, only to be told that there was no such search term. When I repeated the process in the stock browser I got what I wanted. I've also had issues with timeouts, and "interesting" rendering of some pages with Opera.

Running Android 4.0 web-browser on my Galaxy S II, I couldn't ask for more, it's as quick as it gets, it has great HTML5 and flash support and now has smooth zooming etc. Whilst in the past I've looked to other browsers, except for more in-depth functionality I'm finding there's less and less need, the Android 4.0 offering is exceptional.

[crossy]

Running Android 4.0 web-browser on my Galaxy S II, I couldn't ask for more, it's as quick as it gets, it has great HTML5 and flash support and now has smooth zooming etc. Whilst in the past I've looked to other browsers, except for more in-depth functionality I'm finding there's less and less need, the Android 4.0 offering is exceptional.

I'll agree - when I went from Honeycomb to ICS on my Transformer, I went from "why won't you work you $%£* !!!" when doing Hexus posts to something akin to the desktop experience. That said, I've still found the odd site where Dolphin for Pad or Firefox works better - Virgin Media's TV guide is one such site.

Chome on Android looks reasonable, give it a couple of months (and hence the usual one-new-version-a-week we're used to from Chrome) and it'll probably be my browser of choice.

[Mattus]

Oh look, they've excluded iPads from the stats and decided to count the iPhone and iPod as using different browsers while counting everything Android as a single entity.

What she said. Safari is exactly the same on the iPhone and iPod Touch - why count them separately whilst squeezing every Android device (phones, media players, tablets) under one heading? Not mentioning this is pretty sloppy journalism.

[cheesemp]

Just to balance this a bit if you visit the site in question (http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_os...-201102-201202) and switch to mobile OS (To take out opera etc) then you can see which platforms are in use and its pretty much the same for iOS/Android and Symbian is beating both so i'd say its early days to draw a conclusion.

Also Jenny_Y8S i've met people with iphones that never take them on the internet - usually PAYG'ers. Don't turn this into a platform bashing exercise.

[crossy]

No doubt that in number of devices sold Android serious spanks iOS but in the "Which gets used more for the internet" and "Which generates the most web traffic" (Admittedly two different figures) iOS is champ. Many android phones get sold and then never used online, this is well known in the industry, it's been reported time and time again.

I'm going to agree with you (bit cut out of the quote above) that it's strange that all iOS devices weren't lumped in together. That said, given the numbers of iPod Touch's out there, maybe that'd skew the figures? However, the Hexus article did say "at least according to StatCounter", so at least you know whom to point the finger at for that latest batch of statistics, (and you know what they say about statistics and lies)

No, what I'm going to pick up is the comment that "Many android phones get sold and then never used online, this is well known in the industry, it's been reported time and time again". Unless the "industry" you're referring to is Apple's PR machine, then I've never seen this reported - so I'd be appreciative of a steer to one (or more) reports of these "well known" facts. Broaden my knowledge etc ...

Irrespective of whether or not an unbiased report had made it into my little universe, I'd question the wisdom of someone who bought a "smartphone" and then failed to use the features that differentiate it from a much cheaper "feature phone" - like the Nokia 2330 I have sitting in front of me at the moment. This being the case, I'd kind of doubt that any significant numbers of smartphones never make it online - whether that be via 3G or Wifi.

[crossy]

Just to balance this a bit if you visit the site in question (http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_os...-201102-201202) and switch to mobile OS (To take out opera etc) then you can see which platforms are in use and its pretty much the same for iOS/Android and Symbian is beating both so i'd say its early days to draw a conclusion. Also Jenny_Y8S i've met people with iphones that never take them on the internet - usually PAYG'ers. Don't turn this into a platform bashing exercise.

Thanks for that graph cheesemp - was very interesting because we've been having a discussion here of the merits of Blackberry's v's iOS/Android. Kind of makes me feel a little sheepish because I'd been slagging Nokia off for doing that fantastic camera on the 808 and then saddling it with Symbian, (but at least I'm not alone in doing that - a lot of MWC reviews were saying the same) - makes more sense now if Symbian is still that popular.

Got to say that - if you're comparing Android-ICS and iOS5 then there's pretty much nothing in it - both are excellent "web aware" OS's as far as I can see. Speaking to my daughter though and she came up with a possibility - perhaps a (very?) small part of the apparent popularity discrepancy can be put down to services that have an app on Android, but on iOS - because of Apple's "we want a cut of any in-app sales" policy - the same functionality is delivered via browser instead. If true, this would obviously bump up the iOS figures for web usage, (or reduce the Android ones if you prefer).

And amongst her peers, while Facebook is the major use for smartphones, she couldn't think of a single person who'd not Google'd for something between classes at least once.