analytics

I have recently been advancing my work in mobile theming and architecture for a few different websites, as I agree with many others who have said before that the web will become mobile (meaning it needs to display equally well on a smartphone, a tablet, and the desktop) in the next 5-10 years... and we need to be ready for that!

Here are some device usage statistics for the past month on a variety of websites I maintain (I only mention the top three - Blackberry, Symbian, etc. are too low to worry about them at this point):

Archdiocese of St. Louis

• iPhone - 1,253 visits, 2.43 pages/visit
• Android - 434 visits, 2.76 pages/visit
• iPad - 296 visits, 3.98 pages/visit

St. Louis Review

• iPhone - 479 visits, 1.74 pages/visit
• Android - 171 visits, 1.57 pages/visit
• iPad - 148 visits, 2.45 pages/visit

Despite Microsoft including Internet Explorer in all its operating systems, people are installing FireFox as their default browser at an astonishing rate. I take pride in the fact that all but two of the sites I help maintain have already seen FireFox (and sometimes even Safari) overtake Explorer (all versions combined) as the most used browser.

FireFox far surpasses IE on any even remotely tech-oriented website.

The sites that still get more Explorer traffic are parish and Archdiocesan websites (which are typically visited by an older demographic, and/or people who are using office computers).

Germany, apparently, is the first country in which Explorer's long-standing crown as the most-used browser has been taken away by FireFox.

Of course, having 99% of the web use FireFox would be just as bad as 99% using Internet Explorer. I'm hoping Safari, Chrome, FireFox, and Internet Explorer all stay around awhile and help spark more innovation and speed in the browser arena.