Google Chrome Continues Steady Rise, Though OS Questions Remain
Google’s Chrome Web browser continues to see increased adoption, but will it translate into a successful shot at the operating-system market?
According to StatCounter, Chrome finished September with 9.61 percent of the browser market in the U.S., placing it in fourth place behind IE (51.38 percent), Firefox (27.53 percent) and Safari (9.98 percent).
In September 2009, Chrome had 3.65 percent of the market, making it and Safari the only two of the top five browsers to pick up market share during the past year, though Chrome has outpaced Safari’s growth.
Pingdom takes a look at Google Insights for Search to find that Chrome is also gaining ground in “mindshare” quickly and is catching up to Firefox, which spells good bodings for its future.
“When it comes to establishing mindshare, Google has a huge advantage over Mozilla,” Pingdom writes. “They own not just one, but several of the world’s largest web properties, and they have frequently been advertising Chrome on sites like YouTube and the Google Search homepage (Google.com). We’re not trying to belittle what Google has done with Chrome, it’s an excellent browser, but with Google pushing it on its own sites, Chrome has one heck of a home field advantage.”
NetMarketShare notes that Chrome 6.0 needed just about eight days to overtake Chrome 5.0 after it launched on Sept. 2. As of Oct. 3, Chrome 6.0 accounted for 7.98 percent of global browsing, while Chrome 5.0 accounted for 0.34 percent. Back on Sept. 4, Chrome 5.0 accounted for 6.83 percent of global browsing while Chrome 6.0 accounted for 0.99 percent.
The company also highlighted the rising shares of IE8 and IE9 Beta, and the resulting drops in usage of IE6 and IE7.
Chrome’s next big venture is its anticipated spread across tablets and netbooks, maybe as soon as next month. While the proposition is certainly sexy, there are reasons to rein back expectations.
“A big reason for iPad’s popularity are the apps that run on it, just as a big reason for the iPhone’s popularity and Android phones’ popularity are the apps that run on them,” writes Preston Gralla at Computerworld. “And Chrome was designed to run Web-based apps in the cloud, not to run local apps.”
Sources:</strong
http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-US-monthly-200909-201009
http://royal.pingdom.com/2010/10/04/chrome-rapidly-catching-up-to-firefox/
http://ostatic.com/blog/chrome-os-has-promise-but-also-faces-an-uphill-climb
