According to these stats, UC Browser (http://www.ucweb.com/) has more market share than Firefox. From what I can tell, it is popular in India, China, and its popularity is growing in Africa.
Should Adapt consider formally adding it to its list of supported browsers?
UC Browser: should Adapt support it?
Re: UC Browser: should Adapt support it?
If it has no developer tools/means of debugging then no, I don't think we should.
We did actually already consider adding this once before; I forget the exact reason as to why we chose not to though.
Re: UC Browser: should Adapt support it?
I’m ready to accept that the lack of developer tools can be one factor in the decision, but not yet ready to accept it as the only factor. While still new to UC Browser, I can’t imagine how it could supplant Firefox (and IE and Opera) worldwide as the number three browser without developers finding a way to work with it. (Hence my question in this post.)
Adapt chose to support Firefox and Opera, and yet UC Browser has surpassed both – worldwide at least. UC Browser’s browser market share barely registers in North America and it does not register in Europe. But it outranks Chrome in India, is second in Asia, and is a close fourth in Africa. (browser market share from gs.statcounter.com)
I’m not suggesting that Firefox or Opera be dropped. I’m suggesting that we can expect the popularity of technologies to change over time and that Adapt will need to reflect that. Likewise, as Adapt finds it way into more parts of the world, its success will depend on accommodation of regional technologies (in this context: browsers).
I believe this is the right time to ask the question. Statistics (even if imprecise) support the new importance of UC Browser to the world market and to Adapt as a browser-based application with a worldwide vision. And Adapt is talking more and more about version 3 of the framework. As the project considers different options for dealing with legacy browsers and evergreen browsers, it seems that it should also consider what “new” browsers are important for its future.
I’m hoping that people using Adapt in regions where UC Browser has significant presence will post insight here. Is it used only on feature phones? Do clients prefer eLearning in a desktop format where UC Browser is not used?
Re: UC Browser: should Adapt support it?
UC browser is the leading Mobile Browser in China, of more than 63% of the market share, QQ mobile browser comes second with about 27% market share.
For the Desktop Browser landscape in China, Chrome has about 42%, IE comes seconds with about 28%(ie8 12.08%, IE9 10.32%, IE7 3.42%, IE10 1.97%).
QQ browser (developed by Tencent) 6.02%
2345 browser 4.77%
Sougou 4.54%
Firefox 2.04%.
Others 12.80
Date source: baidu data
UC Browser (Desktop version) does have web dev tools, see screen attached.
my 2 cents:-)
Re: UC Browser: should Adapt support it?
A bit more on UC and other browsers in China for your information.
Most of these browsers, including UC and QQ, are so-called "dual-core" browsers, based on both webkit/Blink and Trident.
The browser will automatically select the mode according to the page the user visits. User can also manually select the compatibility mode (Trident) or high-speed mode (Blink/webkit).
In China, most online banking supports only IE browsers, that's one of the major reasons for these dual-core browsers, maintaining the IE compatibility while enjoying the latest browser rendering technology.
Personally, I've no problem with these browsers as long as they're a rather recent version. Adapt course works well on chrome generally has no problem with those dual-core browsers.
That being said, IE8 support is still necessary as it has more than 10% market share. This is not surprising as it comes with Win7, which has the most OS market share in China.
Lastly, a word about UC mobile browser. It is THE most popular mobile browser in China. It has a mobile developer version for android which you can install with other tools installed on your desktop box for development. For details, check this link out (in Chinese).
Cheers
Sam
Re: UC Browser: should Adapt support it?
OK, so are we talking about adding support for the UC desktop browser or the UC mobile browser?
My concern about adding support for a mobile browser that doesn't have debugging tools* is that it can be challenging enough debugging issues on a mobile browser that DOES have a debugger; if we officially add support for one that doesn't have a debugger we run the risk of putting ourselves in the situation of having to debug with no debugger, which is a very bad position to be in!
I think it's important to realise that NOT 'officially' supporting UC browser doesn't mean that Adapt will not work on that platform. It just means the core team don't test on that platform and are not obliged to fix bugs specific to that platform. That doesn't mean we're just going to ignore any bugs specific to that platform, it's more that fixing them will be a community effort rather than the responsibility of the core team.
*if indeed it doesn't, I'm not 100% clear at this point whether it does or not
Re: UC Browser: should Adapt support it?
"OK, so are we talking about adding support for the UC desktop browser or the UC mobile browser?"
In proposing the question, it was not my intent to take a stand on supporting either. I don't think I yet have enough information to justify a firm opinion on supporting UC desktop, mobile, or either. I was hoping that more information and opinion could be gathered from Adapt community members that are using the world's third most popular browser.
I'm still hoping that more developers from regions where this browser is popular--India, China, Africa--will post their experience and opinions and needs, so that the community as a whole will be better informed when discussing Adapt's future.
Re: UC Browser: should Adapt support it?
Chuck, as Sam mentioned regarding UC, it is mostly used on mobile devices even in India. The reason behind it is that UC is lightweight and provides better performance on low-end devices.
The usage count definitely will always be high as it is India and China the most populus countries in the world we are talking about. :)
Basically, if we are planning to add UC to our list we would just need to stick to the mobile version. But most of the population who will be using adapt or will be given elearning course built in adapt as part of their trainings would be using Chrome or other browsers rather than UC.
P.S. The above statement is purely my personal opinion. No one else is responsible for this statement.
Cheers!
Aniket