I noticed a link to this graphic today and to be honest, the fact that Chrome recently pushed past FireFox didn’t surprise me as much as:
- Chrome usage grew by 5.5x in the last two years. I myself use Chrome on the Mac (courtesy of a client friend), so I know it’s quality. But hell, that’s rocket ship type growth in terms of users.
- IE, though plummeting since 2009, still leads the pack by a solid 15%. That just shows how as much as Microsoft professed their OS quasi-monopoly DIDN’T influence which browser consumers would use, was a complete lie. A lot of people who buy Windows machine just don’t download new browsers…whether it’s because of lack of knowledge for other choices or merely “laziness”, IE remains the default browser. Anyone who’s used Chrome or Firefox can tell you the quality compared to IE traditionally. Only IE 9 begins to close that gap. The other sneaky part here is that SharePoint’s growth and uber-compatability with IE buoys IE’s corporate usage.
- I expected Safari usage to be higher, especially with Safari’s presence on the iOS platform. I wouldn’t say it’s a monopoly, but it’s the default browser sold on in excess of 200 million devices sold.