Net Market Share lists Safari as top mobile browser

The latest mobile browser metrics from NetMarketShare show that Safari continues to gain market share. Since December 2010, Safari's share of the mobile browser market has increased from 49.17% to its current level of 62.17%. Android has also increased, but its growth rate is much slower than mobile Safari. Android ended last year at 11.50% and is now grabbing 18.65% of the mobile browser market.

Android and iOS are on the increase, but all the other mobile browsers are slipping. The biggest loser is Opera Mini which dropped 13.37 percentage points, falling from 26.49% in December 2010 to 13.12% in October 2011. Symbian and BlackBerry also fell and now grab 2.55% and 2.04% market share, respectively.

These numbers are not surprising to those who have used mobile browsers from a variety of platforms. Both iOS and Android have robust, user-friendly browsers that can access a variety websites and, in the case of Android, serve up Flash content. Opera Mini may be falling as users who would install this third-party browser are turning to these native browsers instead. Drops in Symbian and BlackBerry correlate with declining usage of those mobile platforms.