In order to more accurately describe usage share for Apple devices, the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad are now being grouped under their common operating system 'iOS'.  Each of these devices can still be tracked separately using the Operating System Versions report.  When these devices are combined, they have over 1% of global browsing share, which is now higher than Linux.

This change was also made in order to more accurately compare platforms running on multiple devices, like Android vs. iOS vs. Linux.

In August, Internet Explorer 8 gained 1.17% to 32.04% (including compatibility mode and editions), while Internet Explorer 6 share declined 0.87% to 16.99%.  Share of the nearly decade-old Internet Explorer 6 fell below 5% in Europe and is nearing 5% in many developed markets such as U.S., UK and France.  The major holdout for IE6 is China with over 46% share (50.5% if you include editions), which is significantly skewing global share.


Upon the version 4 release, the iPhone posted its largest single-month usage gain ever in July.  This gain comes amid persistent reports of antenna problems.  Global usage share jumped from .59% to June to .7% in July.  In comparison, the May to June share was esssentially flat.  However, this is a typical share pattern prior to the release of a major upgrade, since buyers hold off purchasing until the new release

In more good news for Apple, the iPhone grew usage share at over twice the pace of Android.

In July, Windows 7 surpassed Windows Vista in global usage share.  However, Windows XP is still the leading operating system by far, with double the share of Vista and 7 combined.

Internet Explorer extended its usage share gains by another .42% in July, gaining about 1% global share since May.  This is the second month in a row of global gains for Internet Explorer and the third straight month of gains for Internet Explorer 8 in the United States.  The gain comes at the expense of Firefox (-.9%) and Chrome (-.08%).

Internet Explorer 8.0 extended its lead as the world's leading browser by gaining .98% share globally (all editions included).

On July 27th, Yahoo Japan announced a deal with Google where Yahoo Japan would switch to Google's search and advertising technology.  This is a departure from Yahoo's agreement with Microsoft to provide such technology.  Yahoo Japan can do this since Yahoo is only a minority shareholder in the company.

The impact of this deal is made greater due to Yahoo Japan's relatively large market share in Japan, with about 40% of all searches in July compared to about 6% worldwide.


In May, Internet Explorer reversed its trend in the U.S. and gained usage share.  In June, the trend reversal has become global.  Internet Explorer gained .57% in June across all operating systems with Internet Explorer 8.0 gaining .86% (revised from .66% - see recent changes) globally.  The gains come primarily at the expense of Firefox (-.51%).  Chrome's pace of usage share gains slowed to +.2% for June.

The gains for IE were the largest in Europe and Asia:
Internet Explorer in Europe: +.88%
Internet Explorer in Asia: +.81%

This increase may be the result of a marketing campaign.  In early June, Microsoft launched their "Confidence" campaign aimed at showing the security features of Internet Explorer 8.

Browser usage share on the iOS platform vs. Android.


Internet Explorer gained over three-quarters of a percent in share (+0.76%) in the United States for the month of May across all operating systems.  Internet Explorer 8 grew at a higher rate than any of its competitors with +1.34% increase in share for the month in the United States.  IE's share gain came at the expense of Chrome (-0.45%) and Firefox (-0.24%).

IE 8 exceeded 31% usage share in May on Windows.  To get an accurate view of IE 8 share, compatibility mode browsing and various custom editions need to be included.  The highlighted items in this report make up total IE 8 share.

IE 8 has grown more that any other browser version in May (+.94%)

Major competitors Google Chrome grew just +0.32% across all OSs and Mozilla Firefox fell slightly by -0.24%.

The first wave of Apple's international release of the iPad has led to a spike in iPad usage share.  The iPad was release to the following nine countries on May 28: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Google's operating system, Android is rapidly gaining usage share.  However, Apple's iOS platform still maintains a large lead.


iPad usage statistics for April:

• Global browsing share reached .03% of total web browsing in April.
  
• Web browsing in the U.S. reached .12% of total web browsing in April, making the U.S. the largest market for the iPad by far.
  
• Hawaii and California are the top states for iPad usage.
  
• Wyoming is the state with the least iPad usage.
  
• Weekend usage is nearly double weekday usage.
  
• The San Francisco area has the top usage for the iPad.

iPad usage statistics by U.S. state

iPad usage statistics by U.S. market area

Firefox 3.6 Gains 4% Global Usage Share in April.  This rapid market share gain is primarily a migration from Firefox 3.5 users.


This report shows the percentage of total browsing on the web for visitors using the iPad.


(click here for a more detailed posting on www.searchterms.com) After a struggle with the Chinese government over censorship and possible state-sponsored hacking of email accounts belonging to human rights activists, Google decided to stop censoring their services in China, including search and news.  China has held firm that censorship is a "non-negotiable legal requirement".  Therefore, Google is now redirecting their Chinese website (www.google.cn) to Hong Kong (www.google.com.hk).

"Users visiting Google.cn are now being redirected to Google.com.hk, where we are offering uncensored search in simplified Chinese, specifically designed for users in mainland China and delivered via our servers in Hong Kong," officials have just posted on Google's blog.

This has dropped Google China's usage share to zero and increased Google Hong Kong's usage from close to zero to 3% of global usage share.

If Google Hong Kong's share drop back to near zero, it is an indication that the Chinese government has blocked access from mainland China to the Google Hong Kong website.  We are providing a daily chart to monitor this.

The Google Chrome browser gained another .5% of global usage share in March, continuing its rapid rise in global usage share.

In March, Windows 7 surpassed 10% global usage share.


The Google Chrome browser gained .4% of global usage share in January.  All other major browsers showed a month-to-month decline.


The Google Chrome browser gained .6% of global usage share in January.  Both Firefox and Internet Explorer dropped share during the last month.

Surprise! The Redmond, WA area has the highest usage share of Windows 7 in the U.S.  Within the actual city of Redmond, 42% of internet users are on Windows 7.


Mobile browsing now accounts for 1.3% of all browsing.  The biggest usage share winners this holiday season were mobile devices.  Both Windows and Mac devices lost a small amount of share in December, while all major mobile operating systems attained large percentage gains:

Mobile O/S	Percentage Gain (November - December)
Android	+54.8%
Blackberry	+22.2%
iPhone	+20.1%
Symbian	+19.0%
Java ME	+15.6%

While the iPhone continues to dominate overall mobile usage share, Google's Android operating system was by far the largest percentage gainer in December.

Google's Chrome browser is now the third most popular browser in usage share.  Chrome recently passed Safari and now has 4.6% usage share.


Windows 7 has rapidly gained global usage share, topping 5% in daily tracking and 4% for the full month of November.  The breakdown of which operating systems Windows 7 is taking share from in November is as follows:

Operating System	Global Share Net Change (November 1 - 30)
Windows XP	-1.43%
Windows Vista	-0.28%
All Mac Versions	-0.15%

Firefox is five years old this week.  It has also reached another milestone, attaining 25% usage share for the week of November 10th.

"What an exciting milestone for Mozilla, particularly as we are celebrating five years of Firefox this week," said Mitchell Baker, Chair, Mozilla.  "The momentum around Firefox adoption has been truly astounding."

Windows 7 has crossed 4% in daily tracking.  In comparison, Vista took seven months to get to 4% usage share. Here is the historical data on Vista share:

Month	Vista Usage Share
November 2006 (released to businesses)	0.11%
December 2006	0.16%
January 2007 (released to consumers)	0.18%
February 2007	0.93%
March 2007	2.04%
April 2007	3.03%
May 2007	3.75%
June 2007	4.54%

Windows 7 Breaks 3% in Daily Tracking.

Windows 7's general availability release date is October 22nd.  Prior to this, Windows 7's usage share has steadily increased to over 2% globally.  This report tracks the daily usage share of Windows 7.

Upon analysis of global Windows 7 usage share, we noticed a distinct pattern.  Russia and many Eastern European countries already have significant share of Windows 7 usage.  We are sure these are all properly licensed users.

Windows 7's hourly tracking.  Please note that these numbers are not weighted by country (unlike all other reports) and should be used to determine trending, not absolute share.


On August 28th, Apple released Snow Leopard, which is version 10.6 of the Mac operating system.  Since then, it has had rapid adoption.  On the day of Sept. 29th, the global share of Snow Leopard was .91%, and the overall Mac share was 4.93%.  This means 18.45% of Mac users have upgraded to Snow Leopard in just one month after its release.

In another rapid adoption article, Firefox 3.5 gained 4% global share in September, bringing its share to 12.7%.


Windows 7 has broken 1% share worldwide.

Bing has risen to 8.4% share in the U.S. in August (compared to 7.8% in July).