There is no question that mobile browsing is taking off. The latest data from Opera shows that nearly 32 million people used its Opera Mini mobile browser in August, 2009, a 147 percent increase over the year before. In terms of pageviews, Opera Mini delivered 13.9 billion last month, a 235 percent annual increase. That means that each person is loading 436 pages a month on their cell phones, or 14 a day. A year ago, Opera Mini users were uploading 323 pages a month, or 10 a day. So both the number of people browsing on mobile phones and usage is going up.
But is Opera Mini the “world’s most popular mobile browser,” as Opera claims in a press release? What about the mobile version of Safari, which is the only browser allowed on the iPhone or iPod Touch. Apple has sold a total of 50 million iPhones and iPod Touches (30 million iPhones, and 20 million Touches), which both come with the Safari mobile browser.
How many of those people actively browse the Web in any given month isn’t exactly clear. StatCounter gives some indication. It currently shows Opera with 26 percent share of mobile browsers worldwide, followed the iPhone with 21.8 percent. But it also shows another line for the iPod Touch at 9.7 percent. Add up those two, and you get 31.5 percent.
Of course, the iPhone and the iPod Touch aren’t browsers, they are devices. What we really want to compare is Opera Mini versus Webkit, which underlies both the Safari mobile browser and the Android browser. Webkit’s market share would be even higher than Safari’s.
Thereis also a geographic difference. Opera mini seems to be more popular in Europe and Russia, particularly on Nokia and Sony Ericsson phones. On those devices, Opera Mini provides the best mobile browsing experience. But overall, it is a stretch to say that it is more popular than Webkit or even just mobile Safari. And let’s not forget all the Internet-connected apps on the iPhone and Android as well. One day, app developers will decide to escape that walled garden, and then mobile browsing will really take off.
boring.
Bored are ya? Only boring people get bored.
Over on http://www.simpy.com/ it has shown some growth since its appearance in April, but it does not have a smooth upwards curve. Not even linear.
useless article…rather it should point out the fact that mobile browsing becoming more common
You cannot compare Opera Mini with Webkit, since Webkit is not a full browser, but a mere rendering engine, used by many browsers on mobile devices and desktop computers.
Yet I still prefer the default browser on the Hero Sense UI. Opera is below crap to me, not sure how people can use that.
I only use Opera on my mobile, their new version (5) is even better than before. Personally I prefer it to Safari.
+1. Opera 5.0 UI is a copy of mobile Safari UI, even icons are almost similar (I actually consider it an advantage, why reinvent the wheel?), plus Opera has a few notable advantages: faster rendering, traffic saving, text-to-screen adjustment on server.
Still, Opera Mini’s best strength lies in its availability for a wide range of devices: from simple J2ME-enabled phones to powerful smartphones.
+1
The proxy server behind is what makes OperaMini good.
@Pavlo Zahozhenko
Actually, Opera Mini 5 is a copy of the UI on the DS, Wii and Opera Mobile 9.5.
webkit is what powers nokia’s phone browser. In fact I believe nokia have been using webkit on mobile’s long before the iphone and ipod touch.
Opera Mini is a nice browser and on my wintel’s I use it.
All of the browsers you’ve mentioned are based on Webkit, but to say they are the same browser would be a fallacy. That would be like saying Chrome, Chromium, Iron, and Safari are the same browsers since they are all based on Webkit. Opera Mini is one mobile browser. Perhaps the browsers on the iphone and ipod touch may be the same or similar but I suspect that is not the case with iphones vs androids. You also forgot that the Palm Pre also has a browser based on Webkit as well.
Saying Safari Mobile is more popular than Opera Mini is the same as saying IE is more popular as Firefox, it’s even worste in the case of ITouch/Phone because you have no choice, so much for popularity…
You have the choice to BUY the iPhone or iPod Touch… and to that, people have been choosing Safari mobile in droves.
No iphone users choose Safari mobile. Most people don’t even know what Safari mobile is. They bought the iphone because it’s cool, hip, and/or trendy. Apple imposed mobile Safari on you/them. The alternative browsers in the app store are skinned versions of mobile Safari.
“What about the mobile version of Safari, which is the only browser allowed on the iPhone or iPod Touch.”
The article is wrong. The itunes app store/iphone platform must have more web browsers than any other mobile platform.
Take a look: http://tr.im/zDx1
In the mean time, a tech blog really ought to know what it is talking about when it makes offhand assertions that are intended to turn people on or off of products.
@elldove
Please note that those aren’t really separate browsers, but rather UI wrappers around the existing browser.
Don’t forget that those other browsers are like IE they come with the device. Operamini is like Firefox, pple have to choose to download it
By the way, have you noticed that both iPhone’s and iPod Touch’es share on those StatCounter graph are on the decay, while Opera Mini’s share is on the rise?
I guess new Opera Mini 5.0 will increase Opera’s market share growth even further (have been playing with it for a few days, this thing rocks, in some ways it’s even better than mobile Safari).
Interesting that Nokia’s browser market share is 20.4%, much higher than I thought. Btw, this browser is also based on Webkit.
Jeez you Techcrunch folk really do not like Opera. You cannot write an article on them without taking a dig. Is this because its a European company and you’re just being protectionist?
Opera is also bringing it’s mobile browser to Android very soon, so hopefully that will prove a big game changer.
I also think it has more and better features than Safari and Android’s browsers. It’s only problem is that no one in the tech industry really cares about the low-end mobile market and that’s where Opera is most used/revered.
low-end mobile market? Opera is the leading in most smartphones from blackberry nokia and sony ericsson. they are also preinstalled in a majority of japanese phones, which are far more advanced than iphone (Japan is the market where iphone really sell below expectations). The exciting change will come when Apple approves the ten times faster free Opera browser on their iphone and give their users a choice.
I downloaded beta 5 after not liking beta 4 and never using it. Beta 5 is amazing! Best mobile browser ever made, imo.
Opera is the best mobile browser out there, end of story.
If you add itouch to safari’s numbers, then Opera should get credited for their browsers on other devices, such as Nintendo DSi
The Opera mini, in my opnion, is the best.
what is up with techcrunch always freaking out when any company or product demonstrates success in a market that apple is also in? the fact here is that people are actively seeking out to download opera mini. IE comes by default on all windows machines but people still seek out to download firefox. so hooray, the iphone and ipod touch force people to use mobile safari, and because they are popular devices, lots of people are browsing with it. i’m not saying mobile safari isn’t good, but given more openness on the platform, the equation would be different.
would techcrunch be so defensive of microsoft if the same forced use applied to IE on windows? hell no.
oh and as other commenters have noted, nokia’s s60 browser is sorely absent from the browsers listed using webkit, which was doing so before mobile safari existed.
Opera is a decent browser indeed, likewise in the desktop space.
The use of Webkit by so many vendors is rising and that’s a great story since we can hopefully have higher end experiences in mobile web apps. The first year of the iPhone saw only web apps and many were quite stunning.
Mobile traffic to sites I manage is still hovering at just over 1% of all traffic but we are building to this future right now.
—-
Let’s stop with the railing against the App Store — it’s tired bs and obvious baiting on TC’s part.
Seriously.
There will always be a reason to “write to the iron”, especially on mobile devices.
The App Store has been around for nigh 2 yrs … with crazy growth and probably an ass load of contractual agreements with ATT that even the esteemed authors at TC know nothing about.
TC is increasingly looking like a more childish version of The Register. If that spells success to TC then so be it but my attention goes elsewhere.
What about the 3rd party browsers embedded on the lower to mid end phones by the providers and manufacturers? They may not be as feature rich as a Safari, but they have to handle a significant portion of the web traffic. For example what about Novarra?
A lot of people I know that use symbian phones use the default browser. And then the data would most likely be inaccurate as in a lot of african countries people use opera mobile/mini so they can browse for free. This means they have to download a new browser every two weeks or so.
Here’s why: Opera is the default browser bundled with the Wii and Nintendo DSi. I was surprised to see my 8 year old using it on his own Dsi.
http://www.kota...-sales-figures/
Sean
Eh.. There’s an installed base of about three gazillion S60 phones — of which, most, don’t have Opera installed, but rely on standard S60 browser.
It’s bit like debating whether Safari or Chrome is the world’s leading desktop browser.
I guess they’re just a bit more aggressive and learned from Apple, like when Apple claimed many Opera inventions were first to be seen on Safari 4.
Yes, Opera Mini is more popular than Mobile Safari which runs only on the iPhone. Opera Mini runs on almost any mobile out there. And not just in Europe, it’s used widely in Asia as well which includes China and India, the most populated countries in the world.
I used to be a long time fan of opera mini. However, the web experience as a whole is lot better on iphone’s safari. But that’s got more to do with the general user experience and seamless web on iphone than the capabilities of safari.
I really love the chrome and hope it gets ported to iphone somewhere down the line. Although Apple will never allow it. Let’s hope FCC or whatever regulatory body you have in US causes enough trouble to Apple to force it to allow such apps
Apple only allows their browser in the iPhone, the other browsers are deemed as competing against a native app, thus not welcomed into iPhone’s walled-garden.
The beauty of Opera Mini is that it works on all phones. The swanky phones can run Opera, so can a $20 Java-enabled phone. Not to mention that the compression technology allows you to browser so much more for less.
In the company profile, you mention “Opera Mobile”. Opera Mobile is another product offered by Opera Software, and is NOT Opera Mini. Both uses Opera’s rendering engine Presto (as compared to iPhone’s webkit). Opera Mobile works as a native app on s60 and Windows Mobile. If you count Opera Mobile figures, mobile phones that has Opera will be much much more.
Just read this one and it made me laugh. Yes there’s 50 million ipod/itouches but only a minority of them are actively used to browse the web. Opera released active use figures.
If you really want to talk about installed browser base then Nokia would win hands down as I’d guess there’d be close to a half a billion web enabled Nokias out there.