Stats > Browser Trends

This discusses browser trends, resolution trends, colour-depth trends, and Java and JavaScript trends, for designers who want to decide what to support.

Note : the statistics quoted refer to ordinary users; also, as usual, different types of people will visit different types of websites, so stats for your websites will vary.

Note : this does not cover small web appliances such as WAP devices.

Browser Trends 

This discusses trends in the usage of the major families of browsers.

Summary

1% or more use each of the following: Gecko-based browsers (mainly Firefox), KHTML-based browsers (mainly Safari), Internet Explorer 6 and 7, and Opera. More than 1% may also be using Google Chrome, but it is hard to be sure because most stats sources report Chrome users as Safari users.

Note : total IE numbers started dropping in mid-2004 as users switched to the Gecko based browsers.

Note : data from several sources suggest that ~0.3% of page accesses are by users with mobile devices, e.g. cellphones, with the numbers growing fairly quickly.

The Curse of Yesteryear’s Browsers

Browser makers often don’t support older operating systems, which prevents users from upgrading to the safest, most capable browsers. For example, security updates for IE are not available for the 12% of people who use versions of Windows older than Windows 2000; and IE 7 is not available for anything older than Windows XP SP2. Similarly, Firefox 3 does not support users of Windows older than Windows 2000. If browser makers supported older operating systems for a longer period of time, there would be many fewer vulnerable PCs: this would make the Internet safer for everyone, and would reduce the number of users of legacy browsers.

Browser makers may also not supply browser updates, including security updates, to those who have pirated software. For example, Microsoft does not offer security updates for Windows XP older than SP2, but people with older, pirated versions of Windows XP cannot upgrade to SP2, so they cannot get security updates. It is hard to fault Microsoft for this. But if browser makers allowed more pirates to install security updates, there would be fewer vulnerable PCs: again this would make the Internet safer for everyone, and would reduce the number of users of legacy browsers.

In addition, many people choose not to use the latest version of their browser, even when what they use is way out-of-date and has serious security defects. For example, a study of one stats source in Dec 2007 revealed that only 41% of IE 5 users were using the latest version of IE 5, and that only 49% of Opera 9 users were using the latest version of Opera 9. Some people do update, but revert to an older version: this may happen, for example, because the new version has a UI which they do not like (e.g. IE7 is different and less configurable than IE6), or because hidden instabilities in their PC become apparent after installing the newer version (e.g. the new software may behave badly, making the user believe that the software is defective, when the bad behaviour is actually due to an underlying problem which existed before the new software was installed).

These factors result in older browsers being used long after they are obsolete. This not only complicates site design and testing, but also maintains a pool of vulnerable PCs which can act as a reservoir for malware.

Recommendation

A good way to ensure that sites will work for as many users as possible is to (a) design sites to the HTML, CSS, DOM, and other standards, (b) to test sites with common browsers that implement these standards well, and (c) to tweak the sites so that they work well enough for antique browsers still in common use.

Details

As the Stats page shows, the percentage of users using each browser depends a lot on the site. The percentages listed here are, at best, guesses as to which browsers ‘typical’ users are using, and in any case, what matters most is not the exact percentage using a browser, but rather which browsers are used by enough people that sites should support these people. You should use the stats for your site, and remember that, if few people are using a particular browser, it may be that the browser is so obsolete that few use it; or it may be that you aren’t adequately supporting the browser, and its users are going elsewhere.

• Gecko-Based Browsers (Camino, Firefox, Flock, Mozilla, SeaMonkey, etc.): • The reported percentage of users varies a lot, largely because different sites attract different types of users. • I suggest that ~18% typically use Gecko browsers, but many more use Gecko browsers on sites that attract people who are more aware of the alternatives. The percentage of users is increasing slowly.
• KHTML-Based Browsers (Chrome, Konqueror, OmniWeb 4.5+, Safari, etc.): • I suggest that ~5% typically use KHTML browsers — the great majority being Safari users — with the number increasing slowly.
• Microsoft Internet Explorer: Roughly 74% use IE-based browsers, down from a high of ~94% as users switched to other browser families — mainly Gecko and KHTML. • About 42% use IE7, with its percentage growing slowly. About 32% use IE6, with its percentage decreasing slowly as users switch to IE7 and other browsers. • Many still use IE5, with the number shrinking slowly as users upgrade or switch; IE5 will remain a factor for several years, especially since IE7 cannot be installed on Windows older than XP SP2, and since many companies using Windows 2000, which came with IE5, are refusing to update to IE6. • Browsers older than IE5 may generally be considered extinct.
• Opera: • The reported percentage of users varies a lot, largely because different sites attract different types of users. • I suggest that ~1% typically use Opera browsers, with the number changing little. • Browsers older than Opera 8 may generally be considered to be extinct.
• Mobile Browsers: • Few people use mobile browsers, e.g. with cellphones, but the numbers are growing fairly quickly. It is possible that, in 2009, site designers may have to seriously consider making their sites friendly to these browsers, even for sites not made specifically for users of mobile browsers.

Resolution Trends 

This discusses trends in the resolutions of browser displays.

Summary

Most users have 1024x768 or higher, but a large minority have 800x600. These numbers do not include those who browse using web appliances.

It is important to note that (a) the display resolution says little about the size of the browser window, and (b) users can normally resize the browser window. Consequently no particular browser window size should be assumed.

Recommendation

A good way to ensure that sites will work for as many resolutions as possible is to design sites to be resolution-independent, i.e. not to specify widths in absolute units (e.g. pixels) unless a width is that of a fixed-width object, e.g. a GIF, JPG, or PNG image.

Details

At this point in time, precise percentages for each size of display are not known: the stats source for these data reports that 13% of users have displays of undetermined sizes. The reason for this is not known. It may be that many PCs are not reporting sizes; it may be that many PCs have sizes different from what the stats source expects; but this is entirely speculative. The percentages below ignore the displays of undetermined sizes, so the numbers should be taken with a copious helping of salt.

These are resolutions of special interest to website designers:

• 544x372 (MSN-TV / NTSC): MSN-TV users account for <.05% of page accesses. This should change little in the short term, as the number of users has changed little for several years: longer term changes depend on how avidly consumers embrace such appliances, and on how well MSN-TV competes with similar products.

• 640x480: this accounts for ~0.2% of page accesses, a third as many as a year ago. Most users have old PCs. The number will quickly drop as these PCs are retired.

• 800x600: this accounts for ~8% of page accesses. Some users surely have old PCs, with little video memory; the rest likely have PCs whose resolutions are set lower because many new PCs default to a lower resolution: lower resolution displays are faster. The percentage will decrease steadily as higher resolution displays grow more common, but will remain comon for many years.

  Note: a PC display’s resolution is limited both by video memory and display size: more memory permits higher resolution; a larger display makes higher resolution text more readable. Typical resolutions increase, therefore, as larger memories and displays become more affordable.

  Note: the area of the browser window available for content is almost always smaller than the display. The area is reduced by the space taken up by the browser frame: the title, function bars, scroll bars, etc. The area is also reduced if the user resizes the browser, which they can do at any time, and will likely do for high resolution displays. Designers, therefore, should not assume any particular browser window size.

• 1024x768 and higher: this accounts for ~92% of page accesses. Most new PCs have enough video memory for high resolution displays, but many are set to a lower resolution because many new PCs default to a lower resolution: lower resolution displays are faster. The percentage of high resolution users will continue to grow steadily.

• Other: other resolutions are found among web appliances and some PCs. For example, my video resolution is normally 1280x1024, however, I can tilt my display 90°, making the resolution 1024x1280.

Colour-Depth Trends 

This discusses trends in the colour-depths of browser displays.

Summary

Most users have 24-bit (or more) displays (16,777,216 or more colours), but many have 16-bit displays (65 536 colours). Very few have fewer colours.

Recommendation

You can generally design sites assuming 16,777,216 colours or more: the major thing you have to watch out for is that colours with 16-bit displays may be a bit off.

Details

These are colour-depths of special interest to website designers:

• 8-bit (256 colours): this accounts for 0.4% of page accesses. Most users likely have old PCs. This number will continue to drop slowly as older PCs are retired, but the number is small enough that it can be ignored.

• 16-bit (65 536 colours): this accounts for ~7% of page accesses. Some users surely have old PCs, with little video memory; some may have mobile devices; the rest likely have PCs whose colour-depths are set lower because many new PCs default to a lower colour-depth. For PCs the percentage will likely drop slowly.

• 24-bit and more (16 777 216 colours, and more): this accounts for ~93% of page accesses. Most new PCs have enough video memory for high colour-depths, but many are set lower because many new PCs default to a lower colour-depth. The percentage will likely rise slowly.

Java and JavaScript Trends 

This discusses trends in Java and JavaScript usage.

Summary

A significant number of users have browsers in which Java or JavaScript are not enabled. The percentage has decreased somewhat over the years, but it will likely remain significant for years to come.

Recommendation

Java and JavaScript should generally not be used for things which affect a site’s functionality. They are best used to make a site look more attractive.

Details

You can find information about JavaScript, including which browsers support which versions of JavaScript, in Wikipedia.

TheCounter (Oct 2008) reports these levels of support:

Users	Java Support
11 %	none/unknown
89 %	enabled

Users	JavaScript Support
8 %	none/disabled
92 %	enabled

Sites which need Java or JavaScript to function will deter users who have disabled them, therefore such sites will have more visitors with scripting enabled, but exact percentages likely will depend a lot on the site, and such percentages are not available.

Note : the above numbers must be taken with more than a grain of salt, since both include large percentages in which Java and JavaScript support could not be determined.