> > On smartphones, its share of browser usage is virtually nonexistent
> that's surprising
Not really.
Think the desktop. Think MSIE. For a long time it was a horrible browser, but held its market-share simply by being the default. Because people don't know they can change browser. Internet is the blue E. Etc.
Now think Android. All phones comes preloaded with Google Chrome, and most people still don't recognize the idea that a browser is something you choose. Since Chrome is a reasonably good browser (apart from sending your every keystroke to the mothership), people have even less incentive to look up alternate browsers.
And with Chrome being spammed everywhere Google has a piece of internet real estate (No I will not "upgrade" my Firefox to Chrome. Please stop asking), it keeps on winning usage on the desktop and thus helps cement its market-share on Android too. People genuinely ask why Firefox can't sync with their Google-account, implying that if it can't sync with Google, they don't think it can sync at all.
Evidently that's how people work these days. I don't get it either.
> that's surprising
Not really.
Think the desktop. Think MSIE. For a long time it was a horrible browser, but held its market-share simply by being the default. Because people don't know they can change browser. Internet is the blue E. Etc.
Now think Android. All phones comes preloaded with Google Chrome, and most people still don't recognize the idea that a browser is something you choose. Since Chrome is a reasonably good browser (apart from sending your every keystroke to the mothership), people have even less incentive to look up alternate browsers.
And with Chrome being spammed everywhere Google has a piece of internet real estate (No I will not "upgrade" my Firefox to Chrome. Please stop asking), it keeps on winning usage on the desktop and thus helps cement its market-share on Android too. People genuinely ask why Firefox can't sync with their Google-account, implying that if it can't sync with Google, they don't think it can sync at all.
Evidently that's how people work these days. I don't get it either.