Figures from the online measurement service show that February saw use of Android’s Robot browser overtake Opera to take the top spot for the first time.
The chart, which plots the use of mobile Internet browsers over the last twelve months – Feb 2011 to Feb 2012, shows significant growth from Android, which had only just overtaken BlackBerry to fourth place one year ago.
Opera is particularly popular in Africa and the firm will look to increase its share with the newly released developer beta version of its popular Opera Mini Browser, aimed at giving users a more advanced and social mobile Web experience. The Scandinavian firm does not own its own devices but, thanks to deals with firms like African telco giant, MTN, Samsung – which pre-loads Opera onto its feature phones – the browser is well used.