In the latest “State of the Internet Report,” web content delivery firm, Akamai, found that Apple’s Mobile Safari accounted for about 60% of mobile browser usage across its networks but trailed Android devices connecting to the internet using cellular data.
According to Akamai, in Q3 2012 there were more Google Android Webkit browser users accessing content over cellular data networks than those using Apple’s Safari. However, after expanding the data to include all networks (not just those designated as “cellular”), Safari was shown to have dominated the mobile browser market with slightly more than a 60% share. Using this same scope, Android users accounted for about 22% to 23% of the total.
One thing to note is that the data set, which can be viewed on the “Akamai IO” analytics site, comes from several hundred “top-tier” sites that deliver content through Akamai’s services, most of which are U.S.-centric. The resulting information is therefore skewed toward U.S. users.
The findings in the report seem to be consistent with previous Akamai studies which found Android handset owners accounting for the largest percentage of mobile browser requests over cellular, with the Webkit responsible for 37.6% of requests. Apple’s mobile Safari was close behind with a 35.7% share. Following the top two browsers were Opera Mini, RIM’s BlackBerry-dedicated browser and Microsoft’s Mobile Explorer, which accounted for roughly 20%, 4.2% and 1.5% respectively. Apple’s iOS devices took the top spot in overall mobile browser share when considering traffic from all networks, including but not limited to Wi-Fi. It accounted for a 60.1% average throughout the quarter ending in September 2012. The Android Webkit generated 23.1% of requests, followed by Mobile Explorer’s 9.3% share. Opera Mini ended up with an average just below 5% for the quarter.
Last but not least, additional data provided by Akamai IO showed that Mobile Safari, Android and Mobile Explorer were consistently responsible for over 5% of requests across all Akamai networks for the third quarter.
Source: Akamai, Akamai IO
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