Browser Market Share in Austria
I recently took a look at the Austrian Web Analysis' statistics of browser market share in Austria, which provides an evaluation of page impressions of participating Austrian websites (see link) on a monthly basis.
Why does it interest me?
I’ve been strongly shifting my focus to modern web apps in the past years. These apps require a modern browser. Unfortunately, Microsoft's Internet Explorer - the browser that used to have the highest market share - didn't quite contribute to a wide and fast adoption of HTML5, but rather the opposite. Therefore, I'm rather fond of alternative browsers.
Looking at the statistics, I happily noticed that against all odds Internet Explorer's market share has declined significantly within the last year. In the meanwhile, usage of Google's Chrome skyrocketed. In fact, Chrome took Internet Explorer’s rank as the browser with the highest market share in October 2015. Now, one year later in October 2016, Chrome is by far the most used browser in Austria, with an overall market share of 38.8% That’s a considerable advantage of over 20% to Internet Explorer, which now ranks number two with a reluctant market share of only 18.5%.
Open interactive visualization
Why am I excited about this?
The reason I appreciate this fact is simply because (IMHO) Chrome is the browser with the fastest JavaScript execution and the best HTML rendering (see for example HTML5Test). What’s great about this is that users are directly benefiting from these strengths, such as faster loading times, better responsiveness, smoother animations and less flickering, among others.
What to take of it
I have to admit that I was pessimistic about browser adoption in Austria, but this trend really convinced me otherwise.
In aggregate form, what this means for users of my HTML5 web apps is a significant increase in User Experience (UX, a subject very important to me) - all of this without much further ado from my side! So, thanks for that & keep it up!