Opera vs. iPhone: Who's Number One?
Is Opera the most-used mobile browser or not? It sort of depends on how one defines "mobile."
In May 2009, Opera had 24.6 percent share of the worldwide browser market compared to 22.3 percent for iPhone, says StatCounter.
However, if one includes the iPod Touch then Apple (News - Alert) browsers still lead with iPod Touch alone taking 14.9 percent of the market. It's a judgment call.
Nokia (News - Alert) retains third place with 17.9 percent share.
“Opera began the year in number one slot but iPhone overtook it in February," says Aodhan Cullen, StatCounter CEO. “It will be fascinating to watch how this battle plays out over the year.”
BlackBerry (News - Alert) is in fourth place with 6.9 percent of the global market, steadily increasing its market share from 4.9 percent in January to 6.9 percent in May.
It has been quite some time since anybody seriously thought "control of the browser leads to control of the customer." But mobility and Web-based applications - especially on mobile devices - might be developing in a new way. In some cases, the browser could be the path to delivering applications to "locked" devices.
Consider the iPhone and Android (News - Alert) and LiMo devices. The iPhone is now a true software platform with a rapidly growing installed base. But it isn't an "open" platform. There are things a developer cannot do, and users cannot access, for that reason.
As it turns out, though, the browser is the way around such closed or controlled environments. Web browsers from firms such as Mozilla and Opera obviously want to be available on every device, for example. And the browser, in a mobile environment, can create a different user interface and application experience.
A third-party browser could incorporate one of the most-requested features not on the iPhone at the moment: an accessible third-party plug-in architecture that would allow the inclusion of Adobe Flash, RealPlayer and other apps.
We'll have to see where this goes. But browsers might matter more in a mobile context than they do in a PC context.
Gary Kim (News - Alert) is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Gary’s articles, please visit his columnist page.Edited by Stefania Viscusi
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