Opera Mobile is officially the world’s No 1 mobile web browser, taking 24.6pc of the worldwide market in comparison to a 22.3pc share for the iPhone’s Safari browser for May 2009.
This, according to StatCounter GlobalStats, brings the Nokia mobile browser in at 17.9pc for user base.
“Opera began the year in No 1 slot, but iPhone overtook it in February. May saw Opera regain the No 1 position,” said Aodhan Cullen, CEO and founder of StatCounter.
“It will be fascinating to watch how this battle plays out over the year.”
However, if you want to get pernickety about it, StatCounter does say that if you add the number of people browsing the web from their iPod touch, then Apple clearly wins for market share.
IPod touch web surfers alone account for 14.9pc of the mobile user base calculated worldwide for May 2009, so Opera may be singing for joy right now, but this performance ain’t over yet.
On a side note, Cullen pointed out that BlackBerry’s recent performance in the smartphone stakes is quite promising.
It took fourth place in the global market with 6.9pc of the smartphone share in May, in comparison to 4.9pc in January: “Despite the global recession, it looks as if executives are holding onto their BlackBerrys,” Cullen said.
And it looks as though the much-maligned touchscreen BlackBerry Storm didn’t put fans off buying new handsets.
However, the good news is that the Storm 2 is on the way, minus the annoying SurePress, so market share may only increase when this hits the shelves, hopefully later this year.
By Marie Boran
