Browser Adoption Rate Looks Good

By | November 5, 2010 | 17 Comments

Browser Adoption Rate Looks Good

Or does it?

Remember all those “upgrade your browser now” messages and claims that Opera had one of the worst browser adoption rates? Ever wondered if situation has changed after auto update? Let’s find out.

PingDom took 4 day stats from StatCounter and calculated how many users run the latest browser version.

Statistics

91% of Chrome users run version 7.0.
81% of Firefox users run version 3.6.
77% of Opera users run version 10.6.
71% of Safari users run version 5.0.
60% of Internet Explorer users run version 8.0.
Average: 71%

As you can see from the results above, Google Chrome had the best adoption rate. However, it comes as no surprise, since they do run silent updates in the background.

However, what article fails to mention (and StatCouner gives no data) is the fact that those are just a major version numbers. Therefore, 90% could be using Safari 5.0 while rest of us have updated it to 5.0.2

So here you have it, the latest browser branch adoption rate looks good, while security updates ratio is still a mystery.


About (Author Profile)


Vygantas is a former web designer whose projects are used by companies such as AMD, NVIDIA and departed Westood Studios. Being passionate about software, Vygantas began his journalism carrier back in 2007 when he founded FavBrowser.com. Having said that, he is also an adrenaline junkie who enjoys good books, fitness activities and Forex trading.

  • max1c

    Interesting… Obviously Opera improved from the worst. But Chrome shows that silent updates are good. I think every browser should have feature to do silent updates. After you install browser it should have a check box on whether or not you want it to silently update. It should also be activated by default.

    • daddylo

      Note that old Opera version didn’t have auto update feature to start with.
      Old version of Opera was more stable in users eye.
      Old version of Opera is as functional as new version.
      Old versions use “less memory”. I think this is a fact.
      May be, just maybe they didn’t feel a reason to update.

      Also Opera 10.50 update leave them with bad memories and they wish to stay with the version that stable and work good with them.

      • Dave

        Totally agreed! I post it from Opera 10.10 and it just works well. I don’t care what about other browsers or the newer version of Opera.

    • http://my.opera.com/rafaelluik Rafael

      Auto-silent-update is a kick in the ass of user’s choice!

  • http://my.opera.com/d4rkn1ght d4rkn1ght

    It’s nice to see Opera gaining users!

    • Burton Guster

      It doesn’t have anything to do with number of users.

  • filip007

    I think that after IE, users use Firefox and switching to Chrome, Opera is still above bottom, Chrome will lead, users will use what is the fastest and simplistic to use if everything is on-line.

  • http://keryx.se/ Lars Gunther

    The obvious missing piece of this puzzle is HOW users install and update their browser. Chrome and Opera is the choice of individuals who chose that particular browser. Firefox is mostly in that category.

    But in the corporate world users get browser installations and updates through AD policies, set by the IT department. They do not update aggressively, to say the least…

    Chrome has an MSI-package for network installs, but it’s a POS. Just a wrapper around setup.exe. The day Chrome get’s a viable msi-installer we might start to see corporate adoption, but that day we’ll also see a lower percentage of users on the latest version.

    • nobody

      in my corpo (you can find us in fortune’ global 50) chrome will not be installed, ever, until they remove their user tracking call-home bonuses.

      same with opera – opera has no socks support, cant use ntlm properly so it has no place in corpo networks as it would not work anyway.

      it leaves corpo world with IE (obvious choice) or firefox.. end of conspiracy theory

      installers do not have much importance here (but yes, i know managed install is easier with proper installer)

      btw opera autoupdate is still POS, they change internal data so often, that upgrading from 10 to 10.60 without 10.50 makes your entire opera profile a mess.. funny that both chrome and firefox do not have such issues so it is possible to do it right

      • http://keryx.se/ Lars Gunther

        I agree that the lack of msi-packages is far from the only reason that Chrome and Opera are not seeing corporate adoption. IE6 only intranets, usage of ActiveX on the Intranet, etc are also factors.

        Most sysadmins I know limit the use of any additional browser based on numbers alone. Yet another program to support and update = additional work. So they would be reluctant even if there was a functional MSI-package and easily configured AD-policy pack available.

        My main point was not trying to explain why Safari, Chrome and Opera see no adoption in big organizations, but why one can’t compare Chrome’s update rate to browsers that do.

        And yes, having software that auto-updates is NOT something sysadmins like. That would have to be turned OFF, in order for Chrome to see big adoption in the managed PC world.

      • http://my.opera.com/rafaelluik Rafael

        “btw opera autoupdate is still POS, they change internal data so often, that upgrading from 10 to 10.60 without 10.50 makes your entire opera profile a mess..” – Never happened to me. It only happened if I updated a stable to an alpha / beta quality build and then want to update it with the next stable.

      • operafan

        you want socks?? you got it coming :) opera announced socks support!

    • mikah

      Upgrading Opera 10.1 to 10.5 was a mess for a lot of people including me but that was the exception every other time I’ve updated Opera I’ve had no problems.

      Browsers should have auto update set as the default but should also give users the option to turn it off

  • http://my.opera.com/rafaelluik Rafael

    “So here you have it, the latest browser branch adoption rate looks good, while security updates ratio is still a mystery.” – Good point Vygantas!

  • Shawn

    This study should also have counted for Beta users. I’m on Firefox 4.0 Beta, higher than the latest officially released version of 3.6. that doesn’t mean I’m not updating my Firefox. Same story for IE9 Beta.

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