The Samsung Internet Browser has hit a billion downloads, beating Firefox and Opera
When you think of web browsers, you probably immediately recall the main players: Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Opera and so on. You likely don’t think of Samsung, but its mobile browser has passed a pretty important milestone: it’s now showing as having been downloaded over a billion times from the Google Play store.
Let’s put that into context. First of all, there are only seven billion people on the planet. Now I’m not saying that a seventh of the world’s population has downloaded the Samsung Internet Browser (I’ve owned three Samsung handsets, so I can account for a few alone), but it’s still definitely what you would call a big number.
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Secondly, one billion downloads is more than some big-name opposition too: Firefox and Opera.
Both are listed as “100,000,000+ installs”, so Samsung might comfortably beat them both put together (although due to the peculiar way Google Play lists download figures, it’s technically possible that both are sitting on 99,999,999 installs, waiting on one more person to push them over the edge).
But the elephant in the room here is the huge advantage Samsung has. It’s the biggest smartphone manufacturer in the world and, as Google Play counts each activation as an install, you can feel pretty confident in stating that the two are correlated.
In other words, a significant amount of these installs are thanks to phone owners literally having no choice. See also: Google Chrome, which is also in the billion club.
That does something of a disservice to Samsung, which has created a very capable mobile browser that users actually like. It’s averaging 4.5 stars on the Google Play store off 766,642 reviews, which is pretty good going for a pre-installed app.
Think to yourself: when was the last time you even considered reviewing something you didn’t actively install? The only reason I can think of is because I’m very impressed or very unimpressed – and the average rating shows where the consensus is on that front.
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If you want to see what all the fuss is about, it’s free to download, and works on any version of Android from 5.0 onwards.
Do you use Samsung Internet Browser? Like it? Let us know on Twitter @TrustedReviews.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.