Chrome edges out Safari, iPhone OS continues growth in December - report
Apple ends the year with solid iPhone OS growth, a slowing - but stable Mac OS X market share, and its Safari web browser being edged out by Google's Chrome.
In its final report of 2009, web metrics firm Net Applications found that the iPhone OS has continued to gain in market share, with 0.43 percent of the total OS market, a 20 percent increase over November's numbers. This falls in line with expected growth in iPhone sales over last quarter's 7.4 million units. Apple is believed to have shipped up to 11.3 million units this quarter, a number that represents a more than 50 percent increase over the previous quarter. Other analysts place this number at a more conservative 8.8 million units sold.
Mac OS X has plateaued as of December with a 5.11 percent market share, a increase of around 8.5 percent from its January 2009 numbers, but nearly identical to November's amount. These numbers also fall in line with estimates, with Apple projected to sell 2.85 million Macs this quarter, compared to 3.05 million last quarter.
Google's new Chrome browser has passed Apple's Safari in December with a 4.63 percent market share compared to Safari's 4.46. This places Chrome in third-place behind number-two Firefox with around 25 percent and first-place Internet Explorer at more than 60 percent.
A beta version of Chrome for Mac was released early in December, more than a year after the debut of the Windows version. In speed tests, Safari was found to be slightly faster than Chrome, and twice as fast as Firefox.
Overall, Apple is expected to have a "blowout" quarter due to its strength in all major categories of its business, and is expected to beat Wall Street estimates by a fair margin.
In its final report of 2009, web metrics firm Net Applications found that the iPhone OS has continued to gain in market share, with 0.43 percent of the total OS market, a 20 percent increase over November's numbers. This falls in line with expected growth in iPhone sales over last quarter's 7.4 million units. Apple is believed to have shipped up to 11.3 million units this quarter, a number that represents a more than 50 percent increase over the previous quarter. Other analysts place this number at a more conservative 8.8 million units sold.
Mac OS X has plateaued as of December with a 5.11 percent market share, a increase of around 8.5 percent from its January 2009 numbers, but nearly identical to November's amount. These numbers also fall in line with estimates, with Apple projected to sell 2.85 million Macs this quarter, compared to 3.05 million last quarter.
Google's new Chrome browser has passed Apple's Safari in December with a 4.63 percent market share compared to Safari's 4.46. This places Chrome in third-place behind number-two Firefox with around 25 percent and first-place Internet Explorer at more than 60 percent.
A beta version of Chrome for Mac was released early in December, more than a year after the debut of the Windows version. In speed tests, Safari was found to be slightly faster than Chrome, and twice as fast as Firefox.
Overall, Apple is expected to have a "blowout" quarter due to its strength in all major categories of its business, and is expected to beat Wall Street estimates by a fair margin.
Comments
... Google's new Chrome browser has passed Apple's Safari in December with a 4.63 percent market share compared to Safari's 4.46. This places Chrome in third-place behind number-two Firefox with around 25 percent and first-place Internet Explorer at more than 60 percent. ...
I think Chrome browser share will continue to grow, but it won't be at Safari's expense. It offers nothing to the average Safari user but promises to replace Firefox completely once the plug-in mania gets started.
I would bet money that as Chrome usage rises, Firefox and MSIE use goes down. MSIE will likely stay stronger too because the reasons behind it's use have less to do with user preference than they do business. Those that are looking for simple and minimal though will likely stay with Safari.
This doesn't even make sense. Expected by who? How can apple be expected to beat expectations? That doesn't even make logical sense. If you mean to say that some commentators believe that some other analysts projections are low, that's one thing (which is like saying nothing at all, because its just saying that not everybody agrees on apple). But its stated in this article as if the general consensus on wall street is that apple is expected to beat expectations, which is logically impossible.
I think Chrome browser share will continue to grow, but it won't be at Safari's expense. It offers nothing to the average Safari user but promises to replace Firefox completely once the plug-in mania gets started.
I would bet money that as Chrome usage rises, Firefox and MSIE use goes down. MSIE will likely stay stronger too because the reasons behind it's use have less to do with user preference than they do business. Those that are looking for simple and minimal though will likely stay with Safari.
I think you're correct, but for the wrong reasons. Safari and IE are "default browsers" and people who use them generally use them because it's "just what their computer does". Not to say that Safari isn't a vastly superior browser to IE, but very few people decide to use safari in a positive sense. They just use it because that is the macs default web browser.
I've used both chrome and safari for the PC and mac and I like chrome better for both. Chrome is as simple as it needs to be and can now use add ons to the extent that you need them (unlike IE which has way too much going on and is too difficult to slim down). I like Safari, but I think Chrome offers everything that safari does and a little more.
However, Chrome's real competition is the "choice browser" firefox. People who use firefox use it because they don't like IE or, to a lesser extent, Safari and they actually go out and seek a different browser. Google will undoubtedly leverage the google name and the fact that chrome is probably the better browser into continually cutting into firefox's market share.
To me, that's why chrome's market share will cut into firefox and not really IE or Safari. There will always be a large number of people who are perfectly happy with their default browser and will never even consider other options, so IE and Safari will always have a built in market share (as long as things are structured as they are now).
Finally google will eventually have chrome OS as the default browser on some netbooks, which will also cut into default browser market share, but that's too far down the road to really have any idea of what percentage market share chrome OS and thus chrome browser as the default browser will have.
"Overall, Apple is expected to have a "blowout" quarter due to its strength in all major categories of its business, and is expected to beat Wall Street estimates by a fair margin."
This doesn't even make sense. Expected by who? How can apple be expected to beat expectations? That doesn't even make logical sense. If you mean to say that some commentators believe that some other analysts projections are low, that's one thing (which is like saying nothing at all, because its just saying that not everybody agrees on apple). But its stated in this article as if the general consensus on wall street is that apple is expected to beat expectations, which is logically impossible.
You don't read the WSJ much, huh? "Expectations" were "set" in the past. Analysts now feel that Apple will exceed those expectations. I don't see how that's "logically impossible."
For example, in Jan. 2009, my parents and I expected me to graduate college. As summer arrived, not only did I graduate, I got a full-time job. My parents and I agree that I exceeded our expectations.
I wouldn't mind but I think Chrome is a great browser.
I think you're correct, but for the wrong reasons. Safari and IE are "default browsers" and people who use them generally use them because it's "just what their computer does". Not to say that Safari isn't a vastly superior browser to IE, but very few people decide to use safari in a positive sense. They just use it because that is the macs default web browser....
I tend to disagree with this and I don't think there is any evidence to support the idea that most Safari users are just using it "by default."
Safari has a particular appeal to people who like the Apple's penchant for things to be as minimal and as tasteful as possible. This group is definitely a minority, but still quite large in terms of absolute numbers. It seems to me that there is an easily describe-able niche of people who use Safari on purpose, simply because it's the only one that offers this minimal approach.
Personally, I find most web browsers so hideously overdone, so ugly, and so jazzily laid out, that they are difficult to use. Firefox may be one of the best browsers in the world technically, but one look at it's ugly face and you just know that no real artist had a hand in it's creation and it's hard for a lot of us to get past that.
You don't read the WSJ much, huh? "Expectations" were "set" in the past. Analysts now feel that Apple will exceed those expectations. I don't see how that's "logically impossible."
For example, in Jan. 2009, my parents and I expected me to graduate college. As summer arrived, not only did I graduate, I got a full-time job. My parents and I agree that I exceeded our expectations.
Actually, I have a subscription to the WSJ, and FT for that matter, I have a masters in econ and I work for an investment company. The term expectations and estimations aren't tied to any fixed point. If they're saying that wall street has revised their expectations for Apple's 2010, that's totally different from whatever "apple is expected to beat estimations by a fair margin" is supposed to mean. If what you're saying is what the article implied, then they should state from what period the supposed "estimations" were made. Also, they should state who made the estimations.
Saying "apple is expected to beat wall street's estimations" by itself is meaningless at best and illogical at worst.
AI always tries to walk the line between legitimate industry source and a blog. Statements like the above are reasons why its not really a serious news source, just an aggregator of rumors.
I tend to disagree with this and I don't think there is any evidence to support the idea that most Safari users are just using it "by default."
Safari has a particular appeal to people who like the Apple's penchant for things to be as minimal and as tasteful as possible. This group is definitely a minority, but still quite large in terms of absolute numbers. It seems to me that there is an easily describe-able niche of people who use Safari on purpose, simply because it's the only one that offers this minimal approach.
Personally, I find most web browsers so hideously overdone, so ugly, and so jazzily laid out, that they are difficult to use. Firefox may be one of the best browsers in the world technically, but one look at it's ugly face and you just know that no real artist had a hand in it's creation and it's hard for a lot of us to get past that.
Chrome, before you add on any extensions is just as minimalist as safari, if not more so.
Chrome, before you add on any extensions is just as minimalist as safari, if not more so.
Minimalist from a designers point of view perhaps, but it won't stay that way. It's open source, customisable, and people are going to want all their plug-ins. Before it's out for too long, people will be using Chrome as a browser with a plug-in to make it look more like FireFox.
As long as WebKit?s share (Safari + Chrome + iPhone + Android + others) keeps rising I?m happy
Hopefully web site developers will see this and get a clue that there is more to the world than Internet Explorer. Personally I use Safari at work, but that is due more to the corporate environment locking onto IE 6 of all things. The rest of the world though is modern software.
Dave
Minimalist from a designers point of view perhaps, but it won't stay that way. It's open source, customisable, and people are going to want all their plug-ins. Before it's out for too long, people will be using Chrome as a browser with a plug-in to make it look more like FireFox.
What's your point here? That choice is bad? What does "but it won't stay that way" even mean? Do you mean that somehow the browser has gained self-consciousness and will grow more complicated by itself? If not, then what's the problem? People who value the minimalism will use Chrome that way, without getting all the plugins, and that will work for them. People who get the plugins for Chrome that make it look like Firefox, as you say, do so because that's what they want. Everybody gets what they want, including the people who liked the minimalism. I don't get what your criticism of Chrome is.
Minimalist from a designers point of view perhaps, but it won't stay that way. It's open source, customisable, and people are going to want all their plug-ins. Before it's out for too long, people will be using Chrome as a browser with a plug-in to make it look more like FireFox.
You are once again missing the point of why Firefox is so successful. You have a base browser that you "have the choice" of making it look and give it any feature that you want.
Chrome as a base browser gives you the same minimalist start. Customize it as you please.
It's the Choice you are not pleased with or used to given your postings. Apple tells you it's this way or make another choice. You seem to be incapable of choosing for yourself.
On a side note. FJRabon, very good postings. It's nice to come back from a great vacation and read someone with intelligence in this forum rather than the usual suspects.
Personally, I find most web browsers so hideously overdone, so ugly, and so jazzily laid out, that they are difficult to use. Firefox may be one of the best browsers in the world technically, but one look at it's ugly face and you just know that no real artist had a hand in it's creation and it's hard for a lot of us to get past that.
Agreed 100%. All you really need is a back button, an address bar, a bookmarks menu and a site window to surf the web.
But nooooooo ... everything has to be jazzed up and over toolbar'd and over optioned and over featured to the point where the default install of IE8 looks like an IE6 install with a bunch of spyware toolbars tacked on.
Agreed 100%. All you really need is a back button, an address bar, a bookmarks menu and a site window to surf the web.
But nooooooo ... everything has to be jazzed up and over toolbar'd and over optioned and over featured to the point where the default install of IE8 looks like an IE6 install with a bunch of spyware toolbars tacked on.
Chrome is even more minimalist though. It's interface is pretty much exactly like safari, except the search bar and the address bar are the same unibar (which I absolutely love).
I guess safari is more "artsy" looking in the sense that you can tell Jonny Ive had some say so in what it looks like.
Actually, I have a subscription to the WSJ, and FT for that matter, I have a masters in econ and I work for an investment company. The term expectations and estimations aren't tied to any fixed point. If they're saying that wall street has revised their expectations for Apple's 2010, that's totally different from whatever "apple is expected to beat estimations by a fair margin" is supposed to mean. If what you're saying is what the article implied, then they should state from what period the supposed "estimations" were made. Also, they should state who made the estimations.
Saying "apple is expected to beat wall street's estimations" by itself is meaningless at best and illogical at worst.
AI always tries to walk the line between legitimate industry source and a blog. Statements like the above are reasons why its not really a serious news source, just an aggregator of rumors.
I took it to mean the Street thinks Apple will beat Apple's guidance. It never occurred to me to even care what these articles say about Apple and Wall Street and their collective intelligence, as the articles are never written to be an investment source. This is site is exactly what you surmised, an aggregator of rumors. Nothing more, nothing less.
I think Chrome browser share will continue to grow, but it won't be at Safari's expense. It offers nothing to the average Safari user but promises to replace Firefox completely once the plug-in mania gets started.
I would bet money that as Chrome usage rises, Firefox and MSIE use goes down. MSIE will likely stay stronger too because the reasons behind it's use have less to do with user preference than they do business. Those that are looking for simple and minimal though will likely stay with Safari.
its not that safari usage will be affected but that os x will. unless apple comes out with some netbook competition then i believe that mid-late 2010 will be the year of falling os x market share. why pay 800 dollars for a tablet running iphone os?
unless apple makes some big changes they should prepare to lose to google....