Opera retakes lead in mobile browser wars

Opera has reclaimed the lead as the world’s most popular mobile browser, according to statistics released Wednesday.

The Opera web browser overtook the iPhone in May, winning 24.6 per cent of the global mobile browser market, compared to the iPhone’s 22.3 per cent. Opera lost its mobile crown to Safari on the iPhone in February 2009, but seems to have made something of a comeback.

But Apple is still a dominant force. If the iPod Touch, which has web access via wifi, is factored in with its 14.9 per cent share of the global mobile browser market, Apple becomes the clear winner once again, according to the figures provided by website traffic analysis firm StatCounter.

Nokia retains third place with 17.9 per cent of the global mobile browser market, followed at some distance by RIM’s BlackBerry with 6.92 per cent of the market.

“An interesting finding is that BlackBerry has steadily increased market share from 4.9 per cent in January to 6.9 per cent in May. Despite the global recession it looks as if executives are holding on to their BlackBerries,” said Aodhan Cullen, CEO and founder of StatCounter.

So far this year, Android has languished at the bottom of the table, with just 1.86 per cent of the market.