The following information is courtesy of Litmus (https://litmus.com/) a company and service that MGR relies on for all sorts of Email testing while working with different email clients.
EMAIL CLIENT MARKET SHARE 2017
We tracked 15 billion email opens in 2017 to determine where subscribers are reading emails. Here’s what we found…
If each of the emails we tracked was a letter, this pile would be 28,000 miles high.
TOP EMAIL CLIENTS
The top 10 most popular email clients as of December 2017 (Ranking compared to December 2016)
- iPhone, 28% (+/- 0)
- Gmail, 26%(+/- 0)
- iPad, 11%(+/- 0)
- Apple Mail, 7%(+ 1)
- Outlook, 6%(+1)
- Samsung Mail, 5%(NEW)
- Outlook.com, 4%(+/- 0)
- Google Android, 3%(- 4)
- Yahoo! Mail, 2% (-1)
- Windows Live Mail, 1% (+/- 0)
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
- iPhone, Gmail, and iPad remained the top 3 email clients in 2017.
- Only two percentage points separate Gmail from the most popular email client, Apple’s iPhone.
- Combining Samsung Mail and other Android clients, opens on Android account for 8% of market share, or #4 in our top ten list.
Does your email look great on Samsung phones?
With 5% of email client market share, Samsung Mail is one of the most popular mobile email clients. Preview your email in Samsung Mail and other popular email clients and devices to test, troubleshoot, and fix rendering errors before you send with Litmus.
OPENS BY ENVIRONMENT
While mobile is still the most popular reading environment for email, it lost market share to webmail in 2017. The share of emails opened on desktop clients remained virtually unchanged.
MOBILE OPENS
With a drop of 5 percentage points, Apple’s iPhone lost a significant portion of market share in 2017. However, it’s still #1 in our list of most popular email clients, with 28% of all emails being opened on an iPhone.
- iPhone: dropped to 28%
- iPad: dropped to 11%
- Android: dropped to 8% (includes Samsung Mail opens)
What caused the drop in Apple market share?
Apple started allowing users to delete pre-installed apps, including the Mail app, with the release of iOS 10 in September 2016. This may have contributed to the drop in iPhone and iPad opens.
WEBMAIL OPENS
Webmail increased overall this year, growing from 32% to 36% of all email opens. This growth was largely driven by increased activity from Gmail.
- Gmail: Increased to 26%
- Outlook.com: dropped to 4%
- Yahoo! Mail: remained at 2%
Having grown by 7 percentage points over the past year, Gmail continues to strengthen its position as the most popular webmail provider.
GMAIL WEBMAIL OR GMAIL MOBILE?
Gmail automatically downloads and caches images, which limits the ability to detect if a Gmail open happens online in a web browser or through a mobile app. As a result, Gmail webmail and mobile opens are reported together.
DESKTOP OPENS
Desktop opens remained steady this year, beginning and ending the year at 17%. Apple Mail continues to be the most popular desktop email client.
- Apple Mail: Increased to 7%
- Outlook: Increased to 6%
- Windows Live Mail: remained at 1%
IS OUTLOOK BACK ON THE RISE?
Outlook opens showed continuous growth throughout 2017, before taking a dip in December. Outlook 2016 has replaced Outlook 2010 as the most popular Outlook version, with 37% of all emails opened on an Outlook desktop client now being opened on Outlook 2016.
Most popular Outlook versions
As a percentage of all Outlook opens
- Outlook 2016— 38%
- Outlook 2010— 23%
- Outlook 2013 —21%
- Outlook 2007— 10%
- Outlook 2000-2003 —7%
ARE VIEW ONLINE LINKS STILL NECESSARY?
About 3% of all emails are viewed in the web version. Even with improving rendering support across email clients, don’t cut the view online link just yet. It’s still a popular alternative for subscribers who are having trouble viewing your email in their email client.
YOUR SUBSCRIBER BASE ISN’T THE AVERAGE
Email client usage differs by industry—and from brand to brand. Wondering how your subscribers open their email? Find out with a free trial of Litmus Email Analytics.
YEAR IN REVIEW
Month-by-month highlights and email client news from 2017
January
Mobile began the year with 51% of all email opens, while webmail began the year at 32% and desktop at 17%.
March
New bug in Outlook.com and Office 365: Gaps appear after un-linked images..
April
The Gmail App on Android introduces native payments support via Google Wallet, allowing its users to send and request money via email.
May
Outlook finally fixed a notorious bug that turned smiley faces into the letter “J.”
July
Windows 10 Mail introduces support for animated GIFs. Previously, Windows 10 Mail would show only the first frame of an animated GIF, which appeared as a static image.
August
Outlook.com reveals an updated user interface and new features—none of which impact how the client renders HTML emails.
Mobile email opens drop below 50% of email client market share.
September
Microsoft announces plans to bring consistent media query support back to Outlook iOS and Android apps.
Apple launches a series of new iPhones as well as the latest version of its operating system, iOS 11.
October
AOL announces the retirement of the AOL Alto Mail app.
November
Gmail for iOS started to automatically replace copyright and trademark symbols with their emoji equivalent. The bug was fixed before the end of November.
December
Inbox by Gmail launches unsubscribe recommendations, reminding users to unsubscribe from emails they haven’t engaged with in a while.
*Where did we get all this data? Our 2017 market share data is derived from over 15 billion opens collected worldwide with Litmus Email Analytics between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2017. It highlights worldwide trends across all industries and verticals. Some email clients may be over- or under-represented due to image blocking.
