Google Chrome Declines as the Love for Chromium Microsoft Edge Is Real

[The AchieVer]

Google Chrome Declines as the Love for Chromium Microsoft Edge Is Real 

 

Everybody knows Google Chrome is the number one browser on both desktop and mobile, and the latest statistics provided by NetMarketShare show that there’s no chance the rankings would change anytime soon.

 

But on the other hand, April brought the very first decline for Google Chrome in a long time, most likely as a result of more people making the switch to the new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge.

Last month, Google Chrome’s market share dropped from 67.88 percent to 65.64 percent, but despite this, it continues to be the preferred choice for the majority of users on the desktop.

Firefox is still the runner-up with 10.23 percent, followed by Internet Explorer 11, which no longer receives new features, with 7.49 percent.Users already loving the new EdgeAs for the reasons behind the drop recorded by Google Chrome, little is known at this point, but I believe that users trying out the new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge and sticking with it is one possible explanation.

Microsoft is moving from EdgeHTML to Chromium for Microsoft Edge, and the browser is projected to launch not only on Windows 10, but also on Windows 7 and macOS. Last month, Microsoft released the first preview versions of the new Edge for Windows 10, with a beta expected in the coming weeks. No word has been said on the stable build, but it could go live later this year.

While preview versions of Microsoft Edge shouldn’t be used as the main browsers, plenty of users have already made the switch, mostly because the apps already run pretty smoothly on Windows 10.

Obviously, the impact on Google Chrome’s market share could be bigger once Edge reaches the production channel and is released on other platforms too, so it’ll be interesting to keep an eye on Google’s fight to remain number one in the browser market.

 

 

 

Source

 

[Karlston]

Top web browsers 2019: Chrome dumps user share

It was a good month for Mozilla's Firefox browser, which is at its highlest level of use in a year, and for the Microsoft IE/Edge combo. The user share for the two browsers jumped 1.4 points.

 

Chrome last month lost a record amount of user share, a measurement of browser activity, just one month after reaching a new all-time high.

 

Down. Up. Up. Down. Tracking the month-by-month movement of browsers' user share can be trying when the data doesn't show a crystal-clear short-term trend line. Does this mean that Chrome is poised to plummet? Doubtful. Could it? Certainly. Nothing stays on top forever.

 

Just ask Microsoft.

 

According to Internet analytics vendor Net Applications, Chrome's user share plunged 2.2 percentage points in April to 65.6%, its lowest mark since October. The fall was over half a point more than the previous record, set in August 2013, when Chrome accounted for a mere 16% of all user share and Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) was the beast of browsers with 57.6%.

 

Even that massive drop-off, however, didn't erase the past year's gains by Google's browser. For the last 12 months, Chrome remained up four percentage points, the most of any browser by far. History is also in Chrome's favor: The last three times Chrome lost user share, the following month it added a percentage point or more of share to its total, enough to erase the earlier decline.

 

The plunge did put a crimp in Chrome's bid to break the 70% barrier. Where last month's forecast pegged the browser making that mark by August of this year, the latest calculation - based on the 12-month average - puts 70% down on the calendar for June 2020.

 

Firefox scratches above 10%

In the zero-sum browser game - one's losses means another's gains - Mozilla Firefox was one of April's winners. The open-source browser gained a full percentage point, ending the month with 10.2%. The total was Firefox's highest since March 2018 and the first above 10 points since June that year.

 

Firefox has given its makers stretches of optimism in the past, but those have been brief, a month, two at consecutive at the most. It's been nearly two years since Firefox has had a sustained period of growth (five months, from March until July 2017). In plainer terms, that means it would be smart to hold any applause until Firefox demonstrates it can maintain some kind of growth.

 

Computerworld's newest forecast for Firefox predicts the browser's share will remain above 10 points through this year and at least halfway into next. It's up to the browser's engineers and designers to make that happen by continuing the modernization strategy they adopted in late 2017 with the version dubbed "Quantum."

 

Elsewhere in Net Applications' numbers, the combined user share of Microsoft's IE and Edge also rose, climbing 1.4 points to 14%. The one-month increase was the largest-ever for Microsoft in Computerworld's nearly 12 years of recorded data, and the month-end total was the highest since September. Both were likely welcomed in Redmond, which has had to swallow months of data that painted its browsers as sad sacks on the way to oblivion.

IE sees an uptick, too

Look closer at the numbers, though, and Microsoft's sunny skies turn overcast. Most of the user share increase - 70% of it - came from IE, which even for Microsoft is a dead end. The company halted all IE development long ago after it relegated the browser to legacy status. IE is maintained with monthly security updates, but it will never be better than it is right now.

 

(Windows' increase in user share - the OS climbed by about seven-tenths of a percentage point - also assisted in IE's uptick, giving it a bigger pie to slice.)

 

Microsoft's one bright spot was Edge, the browser Microsoft plans to transform with the Chromium rendering and JavaScript engines. Not only did Edge gain user share - up about three-tenths of a percentage point in April, reaching 5.5% - but it boosted its share of all Windows 10 PCs. On the latter, Edge accounted for 12.5% of the browser activity on Windows 10, an increase of six-tenths of a percentage point, making April the fourth straight month where that critical metric was in the black.

 

In April, Safari dropped a tenth of a point - about what it had gained in March - to lower Apple's browser to 3.6%. Safari's smaller share, though, was due to an even bigger fall in macOS' user share last month. Because Safari runs only on Apple's platforms, the browser's position is largely decided by the operating system, although it, like Edge and IE, has seen the share of its native OS erode. The difference in declines meant Safari actually ran on a greater percentage of macOS systems in April than in March; April's Safari share of macOS was 38.2%, a percentage point increase.

 

Net Applications calculates user share by detecting the agent strings of the browsers people use to reach the websites of Net Applications' clients. The firm tallies the visitor sessions rather than count users, as it once did. In other words, Net Applications' data represents user activity.

 

Source: Top web browsers 2019: Chrome dumps user share (Computerworld - Gregg Keizer)