Google’s new Chrome browser app for iOS devices became the No. 1 free offering at the iTunes App Store on Friday, driven by all the media buzz generated this week at Google’s I/O conference in San Francisco.
Still, early reviewers of Google’s free download have given the new Chrome for iOS app mixed reviews.
“Safari is using the Nitro engine, and it’s much much faster than this Chrome app,” one reviewer said in an iTunes post.
In light of this criticism, we asked Net Applications Executive Vice President Vince Vizzaccaro about the new app’s prospects with respect to trimming Safari’s commanding share of the mobile browser market.
“I imagine a good number of people will try it out,” Vizzaccaro told us Friday. “But if that’s the experience they end up having, I have a hard time believing Chrome will gain much traction on iOS,”
On the other hand, given that this is Google’s first attempt to launch Chrome on Apple’s iOS platform, the browser’s performance will likely improve over time, said Al Hilwa, director of Application Development Software at IDC.
“Playing on someone else’s application platform — and one that is as tightly controlled as iOS — is always going to be a challenge,” Hilwa told us Friday. “But it is a good move for Google to make the effort to be on iOS.”
Mixed Reviews
Google’s launch of a new iOS beachhead is significant because mobile devices, including tablets, account for 7.8 percent of global browser activities, according to Net Applications. And over the long haul, mobile browsing platforms are expected to command an ever-increasing share of the overall global market.
Though Microsoft’s Internet Explorer reigns supreme in the PC market segment, Net Applications reports that Apple’s Safari leads the mobile segment with a 63.2 percent share and with the generic Android browser…
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