14 DAY TRIAL // According to the latest research reports, the iPhone Safari mobile browser has lost the top position on the market in favor of Opera. The research firm StatCounter has announced recently that the iPhone was outpaced by Opera, and that now we have another king in the mobile browsing area.
Opera Mobile is reported to account for around 24.6 percent of the global mobile browser market, thus gaining the world’s top mobile browser position and leaving behind the iPhone, which managed to account for only 22.3 percent of the worldwide market. The third position goes to Nokia’s Symbian browsers, which managed to pull 17.9 percent market share all around the world.
“Opera began the year in number one slot but iPhone overtook it in February. May saw Opera regain the number one position,” commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO and founder of StatCounter. “It will be fascinating to watch how this battle plays out over the year.”
Opera managed indeed to gain a lot of market share lately, and we have already seen how Opera Mini went up 157 percent on usage in March, when compared to the same period a year ago. At the same time, there will be a wide range of smartphones coming to the shelves this year with Opera Mobile, which should allow the browser to gain more market share.
On the other hand, the competition in the area should tighten up as Apple will also release its new iPhone, while Palm's Pre will come with a new platform, webOS, and a new browser, both of which will compete with the now-leading Opera solutions. At the same time, Nokia's Symbian browsers and the BlackBerry web browsers (placed fourth at the moment, with 6.9 percent share) should not be left out of the equation, as they will try to gain more market share too.