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Apple iPhone takes the lead as No. 1 mobile browser in US, No. 2 in UK

By: , IntoMobile
Tuesday, March 18th, 2008 at 11:31 PM

iPhone Safari is No. 1 mobile browser in US, No. 2 in UKBrowsing the web on the iPhone is a dream. The experience is unrivaled by any other mobile browsing platform. So, it’s no wonder that the iPhone’s Safari browser has already climbed to the No. 1 spot among mobile browsers in the US. What makes it so great? Sure, there’s multi-touch, capacitance touchscreen, Safari, and tabbed browsing – but the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, as they say.

Ireland-based StatCounter tracks over 9 billion page-loads over 2 million websites each month, and they’ve released the latest results of all that web-spying. It turns out that, not even a year after the iPhone’s initial launch, the iPhone Safari browser holds a 0.18% market share in the US – making the iPhone the No. 1 mobile browser.  Combined with the iPod Touch (which runs the same Safari browser), Apple’s touchy-feely duo accounts for 0.23% of the web browser market. That’s a 64% increase since December. In comparison, Nokia’s market share registered around 0.01% in the US.

Now, UK browser-share is a different story. The iPhone takes the No. 2 spot with 0.06% of the mobile browser market, behind No. 1 Nokia’s 0.15%. But, combined with the iPod Touch, the Mobile Safari browser accounts for 0.10% of the UK browser market, considerably closing the gap to the top spot. In comparison, RIM’s BlackBerry accounted for just 0.02% while Sony Ericsson garnered 0.01% of the UK market.

In short, Apple’s iPhone is the No. 1 mobile browser in the US and No. 2 in the UK. All with just a single handset that hasn’t even been on market for a year. In a year’s time, and hopefully with the addition of the 3G iPhone and perhaps an iPhone Nano, it should be interesting to see how much browser market share Apple’s handsets can take. A broader device portfolio should help appeal to an ever greater market – except the haters, that is.

[Via: AppleInsider]

About The Author

Will Park

Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see...

  • JonnyBruha

    “Browsing the web on the iPhone is a dream. The experience is unrivaled by any other mobile browsing platform. So, it’s no wonder that the iPhone’s Safari browser has already climbed to the No. 1 spot among mobile browsers in the US. What makes it so great? Sure, there’s multi-touch, capacitance touchscreen, Safari, and tabbed browsing – but the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, as they say.”

    Download a file with the browser.

    You are the only thing keeping me from buying an iPhone.

  • Topy

    :lol:

  • Steve Litchfield

    Yeah, yeah, and the iPhone comes with unlimited data – and you wonder why it’s used a lot for browsing?? Ship every N95 with an unlimited data plan (mind you, it’d then COST a lot more) and you’d see 10 or 100x the data use.

  • Chris P

    Such ‘swooning’ iphone biased reporting does intomobile’s reputation no good. Perhaps Will should report on Nokia stories exclusively for a week and Stefan apple!

  • dani2xll

    a very biased report considering the iphone is sold with an unlimited data option by the networks involved. Other phone users hands are tied behind their backs due to the rip-off data network charges.

  • Greg

    Hmm. Iphone’s Safari is the number one mobile browser by market share, yet we are told that it only accounts for less than one fifth of one percent (.18%). Somebody’s been munching some brownies because mobile Safari has closer to 66% of the mobile browser market.

    Think about how fragmented the market would have to be such that the number one browser has a fraction of one percent of the market! It just doesn’t make sense.