While it will likely take many months before we get a clear picture of how the Internet Explorer browser ballot screen is affecting market share, Opera is already reporting spectacular changes.
Extensively broken down in the table below, Opera says the overall picture is that downloads have more than doubled since users were made aware something other than Internet Explorer exists (brave new world, people).
Poland led the way with 77 per cent of all Opera downloads coming courtesy of the choice screen, followed by Spain (68 per cent), Italy (67 per cent) and Denmark (66 per cent). The UK was lower down at 46 per cent which could either mean a) we’re already enlightened about the other types of browser on the market, or b) we’re ignorant and don’t want to try new things!
Will these results likely be reflected by Firefox, Chrome and Safari? Too early to say, but given Opera’s smaller user base it was always like to benefit the most proportionately to its existing share – especially with the neutral weighting it enjoyed alongside the other big four. Furthermore, the company was pushing Opera 10.5 the genuinely revolutionary it-would’ve-been-better-to-call-it-Opera-11 overhaul which has seen it leap from a performance also ran to the fastest browser on the planet.
Before we all get too excited though, remember the Browser Ballot screen only exists in Europe so any impact globally will be much less dramatic. Every silver lining…
Source:http://www.trustedreviews.com/software/news/2010/03/19/Opera-Claims-Downloads-Doubled-With-IE-Browser-Ballot-Screen/p1
