Google's Chrome iOS app captures 1.4% of browser market

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Fresh data released on Tuesday shows Google's recently-released iOS version of its Chrome web browser has been adopted by some 1.4 percent of iDevice users following its launch in late June.

Despite only being on the market for less than a month, Chrome has garnered 1.4 percent of the iOS mobile browser market though the metric pales in comparison to the 13 percent share of iDevice owners using other third party apps, notes TechCrunch. Leading the pack is Apple's built-in Safari which holds a dominating 85.7 percent marketshare.

Tuesday's usage data comes from the new Chrome iOS Adoption Tracker, a constantly-updated near real time tool created by the analytics arm of mobile advertising firm Chitika.

The highly-anticipated Chrome for iOS debuted to much fanfare as the speed and device integration enjoyed by desktop and Android users was expected to be ported for Apple's iDevices. It was announced during Google I/O in June that the browser is now the most popular in the world and boasted 310 million active users prior to launching on iOS.

Chrome iOS Adoption
Source: Chitika Labs


Chrome is seen as the first legitimate contender to Apple's Safari, the default software that comes with iOS and the browser apps throw to to when clicking on a link. While users can surf the web through other dedicated internet apps or through integrated browsers like 1Password's bare-bones offering, most users tend to gravitate toward Apple's non-deletable Safari.

Although Google's attempt saw success when it was first released iOS App Store download numbers have declined to what Chitika calls "moderate levels of growth."

Some pundits note that Chrome for iOS is not a true representation of the browser, even for a mobile version, as Apple's sandboxing rules don't allow the use of Google's speedy JavaScript rendering engine meaning that the app is not as fast as its Android counterpart. What is somewhat retained from other versions are features like multi-device syncing, unlimited tabs with unique tab switching capabilities and a revamped on-screen keyboard though everything must run within Apple's third-party app guidelines.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 32
    gazoobeegazoobee Posts: 3,754member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post



    Fresh data released on Tuesday shows Google's recently-released iOS version of its Chrome web browser has been adopted by some 1.4 percent of iDevice users following its launch in late June.  


     


    What's that? like a thousand people on the whole planet?  Wow.  

  • Reply 2 of 32


    really cause safari sucks in any version

  • Reply 3 of 32


    Chrome: There's no other way to get Larry Page's fingerprints all over your personal info.


     


    Remember; with Google, you are not the customer, you are the product.

  • Reply 4 of 32
    kozchriskozchris Posts: 209member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by dfcurtin View Post


    really cause safari sucks in any version



    You obviously have never used Safari. I'm even using Safari when in my Windows environment now because it works so well.

  • Reply 5 of 32


    Chrome on iOS isn''t really Chrome anyway as it has to use the rendering engine, so unless you're looking for the sync features, not really all that worth it.

  • Reply 6 of 32
    gazoobeegazoobee Posts: 3,754member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by kozchris View Post


    You obviously have never used Safari. I'm even using Safari when in my Windows environment now because it works so well.



     


    Don't bother.  He's just a troll.  


     


    He's probably not aware that Chrome on iOS *is* Safari for all intents and purposes with the exception of the UI.  He's also probably not aware that Chrome uses webkit and therefore benefits from Safari and perhaps wouldn't even exist if it wasn't for Safari.  

  • Reply 7 of 32
    daylove22daylove22 Posts: 215member


    hopefully, it does not crash all the time like the computer's version

  • Reply 8 of 32
    jakebjakeb Posts: 562member


    Why would anyone use Chrome for ios? It's just ios webview with a different name. 

  • Reply 9 of 32
    frugalityfrugality Posts: 410member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post



    Chrome is seen as the first legitimate contender to Apple's Safari, the default software that comes with iOS and the browser apps throw to to when clicking on a link. While users can surf the web through other dedicated internet apps or through integrated browsers like 1Password's bare-bones offering, most users tend to gravitate toward Apple's non-deletable Safari.


    MS was sued for such things.  They lost, and were fined for tying Internet Explorer to their operating system.  Sure, you could install other browsers and use them for other functions.  But anything OS-linked was done in IE.


     


    And Apple ties Safari to any iOS browsing and hotlinks, which can't be replaced by another browser.

  • Reply 10 of 32
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    gazoobee wrote: »
    What's that? like a thousand people on the whole planet?  Wow.  
    There have been about 250 million iOS-based iDevices sold right? To capture 1/4% of the browser market on iOS-based iDevices that would mean 3.5 million. That said, market share for browser stats are not a 1:1 ratio of each device but it does give an idea that it's pretty popular for a 3rd-party browser from the App Store.

    jakeb wrote: »
    Why would anyone use Chrome for ios? It's just ios webview with a different name. 

    One reasonable answer is because one likes the UI and features better than Safari. It does use WebKit but it also doesn't use the Nitro JS engine that Safari uses because 3rd-party apps don't have access to that due to security concerns which means I won't be using it even though there are nice aspects about it I hope Apple does adopt.
  • Reply 11 of 32
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    frugality wrote: »
    MS was sued for such things.

    No they weren't. That's like claiming you didn't kill someone, the bullet did.
  • Reply 12 of 32


    Chrome for iOS has many features Safari does not.


     


    - Unified search and navigation bar


    - Much easier private browsing


    - Voice search


    - Request desktop version


    - Flicking between open tabs


     


    It's notably missing "Reader" mode. They both support syncing with the desktop version.


     


    This is not just a UIWebView. Chrome has a decent market share on the Mac and using it for iOS makes more sense for these people. Especially for the syncing.

  • Reply 13 of 32
    sr2012sr2012 Posts: 896member
    Good. So far only 1% of iDevice users are stupid enough to hand over even more of their life to Google.
  • Reply 14 of 32
    cycomikocycomiko Posts: 716member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by kozchris View Post


    You obviously have never used Safari. I'm even using Safari when in my Windows environment now because it works so well.



     


    How nice for you.  BAsed upon Safaris numbers for browser usage, most people do not agree.

  • Reply 15 of 32
    hezetationhezetation Posts: 674member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Gazoobee View Post


     


    Don't bother.  He's just a troll.  


     


    He's probably not aware that Chrome on iOS *is* Safari for all intents and purposes with the exception of the UI.  He's also probably not aware that Chrome uses webkit and therefore benefits from Safari and perhaps wouldn't even exist if it wasn't for Safari.  



    Don't forget he probably isn't aware that Google is offering their own browser simply because Safari doesn't let their sites spy on you, otherwise they wouldn't have made the effort since it isn't really any faster than Safari.


     


    Google is really good at hype, even better than Apple considering they build it off of crap software vs Apple who builds it off solid design.  Google offers great FREE services because frankly no one would pay for them if it came down to it (that ought to bring out the trolls). image


     


    Edit: is it just me or has the new AI forum been really buggy.

  • Reply 16 of 32

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by cycomiko View Post


     


    How nice for you.  BAsed upon Safaris numbers for browser usage, most people do not agree.



    Safari & webkit are almost identical & webkit is at the core of more browsers than any other platform.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebKit  Chrome isn't any better than Firefox or Safari, it's only grown because of the massive advertising Google put behind it & because people are dumping IE like mad (not to mention it's spread through Android).  Google put a lot into Chrome because when they control the browser they have access to everything that you do.  Hope you love being an open book for them.

  • Reply 17 of 32


    The UI of Chrome is pretty good but all of it's advantages are negated for me because it can't be used as the default browser.


     


    Do I want this to change? No way, given Googles performance over cookies I wouldn't trust them to have high level access to my phone. What I would like is for Apple to adopt some of the best bits of Chrome on IOS, the unified search, and the tab navigation are the two I would want them to start with.


     


    Well I can hope :)

  • Reply 18 of 32

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by frugality View Post


    MS was sued for such things.  They lost, and were fined for tying Internet Explorer to their operating system.  Sure, you could install other browsers and use them for other functions.  But anything OS-linked was done in IE.


     


    And Apple ties Safari to any iOS browsing and hotlinks, which can't be replaced by another browser.



    Apple sells the software & hardware together, Microsoft got dinged because they pretty much owned the Desktop OS market.  If Apple gets to a point that it appears they are monopolizing a market & some practice of theirs is creating obvious anti-competitive tactics they'll get dinged too.  In some ways they're already seen this way in certain countries & you see it in the way certain court systems respond to their patent disputes.

  • Reply 19 of 32

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by festerfeet View Post


    The UI of Chrome is pretty good but all of it's advantages are negated for me because it can't be used as the default browser.


     


    Do I want this to change? No way, given Googles performance over cookies I wouldn't trust them to have high level access to my phone. What I would like is for Apple to adopt some of the best bits of Chrome on IOS, the unified search, and the tab navigation are the two I would want them to start with.


     


    Well I can hope :)



    Was that sarcasm or are you serious?  Couldn't tell but just in case.


     


    http://www.apple.com/ios/ios6/#safari


     


    Nevermind, my bad, got confused with Safari for Mountain Lion.

  • Reply 20 of 32

    Quote:


    Was that sarcasm or are you serious?  Couldn't tell but just in case.


     


    http://www.apple.com/ios/ios6/#safari


     


    Nevermind, my bad, got confused with Safari for Mountain Lion.




    No problem, I got confused by what was being offered on what platform myself when the announcement came out I really thought they they would give us a unified search bar on IOS as it would make even more sense on an IOS device.


     


     

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