'Net Features : statcounter

Windows 7’s Popularity Peaks

Allison Howen — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 16:00:00 GMT

It seems as though developers with an expertise in Microsoft Windows 7 won’t be out of a job any time soon.

Although the release of Windows 8 is just around the corner, Microsoft’s current operating system (OS), Windows 7, has become the OS of choice for more than half of the world’s computers.

According to StatCounter, Windows 7 has made it onto 50.2 percent of the world’s computers as of June 2012, taking the top spot from XP, which stats show is now the OS for 29.9 percent of computers. This means that despite Apple’s popularity, more than 75 percent of the world is still using a Microsoft OS.

However, no operating system stays on top forever. StatCounter’s data should provide incentive for developers not only to be familiar with Windows 7, but to also stay ahead of the trend by becoming Windows 8 Certified. After all, it is only a matter of time until Windows 7 is dethroned, right?

Mobile Web Usage is Doubling Every Year

Linc Wonham — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:00:00 GMT

Global Internet usage through mobile devices – not including tablets – essentially doubled from 4.3 percent in January 2011 to 8.5 percent in January 2012, according to Web analytics company StatCounter.

StatCounter also reports that the use of “mobile devices”, referring to smartphones and feature phones only in their research, to access the Internet has doubled year-over-year since 2009.

“While global Internet usage through mobiles is still under 10 percent, the pace of growth is remarkable,” says StatCounter CEO Aodhan Cullen.

StatCounter also announced the latest numbers regarding the world’s leading mobile vendors, mobile operating systems and mobile browsers, based on research covering all traffic to the StatCounter network. That data includes more than 15 billion pageviews monthly on a network of more than 3 million websites.

Most likely driven by its dominance in India, Nokia is still the world’s leading maker of mobile devices (again, phones only) in terms of Web pageviews, and Symbian maintained its lead as the top OS in the StatCounter sample. But both brands’ numbers are clearly in decline while Apple’s devices (not even including the iPad) and iOS are making dramatic gains.

Apple is the second-leading mobile device-maker worldwide but leads the U.S. and U.K. markets, and its iOS was also second worldwide with 24 percent of the Web pageviews in the StatCounter sample. Apple’s operating system was first in the U.S. with 45 percent of the views, just ahead of Android with 39 percent. Worldwide, the Android OS was again just below iOS for third place.

The Android browser was tops in North America with a 37-percent share of the pageviews, but second worldwide with 20 percent and behind Opera’s 24 percent. Apple’s Safari browser finished slightly behind Android in both samples.

The takeaway for website owners is of course the exponential rise in mobile access to the Internet since 2009 – about a 100-percent increase in each of the past three years. This should come as a surprise to no one, but it is interesting to see the numbers from different research reports from time to time. The global use of mobile devices to access the Web in 2009, according to StatCounter, was 0.7 percent. It jumped to 1.6 percent in January 2010, 4.3 percent in January 2011 and now 8.5 percent in January 2012.

Statcounter & the Free Web Analytics Market

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 09:00:00 GMT

Website analytics provider Statcounter just launched several new features including a date-range comparison, the ability to organize websites into user-defined groups, and finally, the platform now also includes hourly stats of traffic trends.

Statcounter, a free service aimed at websites with up to 250,000 pageloads per month, has been around the analytics market since 1999. Somehow it has managed to carve out and maintain a niche despite many, many vendors entering the now highly competitive analytics space.

“Our goal remains to offer the most user friendly website traffic analysis to all our members ranging from companies, organizations and webmasters to bloggers and individuals,” commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter. “The changes have been made in response to feedback and suggestions received.”

StatCounter is far from the only free website analytics provider. While many, almost instinctually, gravitate towards Google Analytics, there are quite a few others worthy of serious consideration. Some solutions which have continued to impress me over the year include Reinvigorate, Clicky, Woopra, Piwik, Mochi Bot, ClickTale, Visistat, and GoingUp.

What website analytics system do you use? Let us know by sharing a comment below.

Abandon Digg Day Update

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 20:10:00 GMT

Digg users apparently deserted the site in droves for Reddit yesterday according to data from Web analytics company StatCounter.

The firm’s research arm StatCounter Global Stats conducted a special analysis of Digg versus Reddit only and reports that, comparatively, Digg traffic to the StatCounter network of 3 million websites plummeted on Monday to 7.6% as opposed to Reddit’s 92.4%.

“The market share between Digg and Reddit tends to fluctuate but on Monday Digg fell to its lowest point compared to Reddit since our tracking began,” commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter. “Users are voting with their mice following the launch of the new Digg site.”

Monday had been named as “Abandon Digg Day” by some users. “It wasn’t so much a ‘Black Monday’ for Digg as a ‘Redd Monday’,” added Cullen.

The data is based on 15 billion page views across the global StatCounter network of member sites. StatCounter, which provides free website traffic information, includes Social Media in its StatCounter Global Stats, a free online research tool for media, analysts, bloggers, researchers and members.

Chrome Passes Safari; You Go Chrome

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 13:52:00 GMT

Web analytics provider StatCounter is reporting that Google's Chrome browser has overtaken Apple's Safari in the US for the first time. Research is from the firm's StatCounter Global Stats report for the week beginning June 21.

Chrome with 8.97% took third place in the US browser market ahead of Safari with 8.88%. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer still dominates the US Internet browser market with 52%, followed by Firefox (28.5%).

“This is quite a coup for Google as they have gone from zero to almost 10% of the US market in under two years,” commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter. “There is a battle royal going on between Google and Apple in the internet browser space (Chrome v Safari) as well as in the mobile market (Android vs. iPhone)."

The data is based on an analysis of 3.6 billion page views (874 million from the US) for the week 21 to 27 June 2010 collected from the StatCounter network of over three million websites.

Analytics: StatCounter Updates

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 14:19:00 GMT

StatCounter has unveiled the latest version of its web analytics product. There are several very important feature enhancements to the release, but exit link tracking and download statistics are the most noteworthy. No changes will required of StatCounter users.