StatCounter and Invisible Opera 10

Below is my visit on StatCounter for a web site:

Number of Entries: 1
Entry Page Time: 12th September 2009 12:00:25
Visit Length: 0 seconds
Browser Default Browser 0
OS unknown
Resolution 1152x864


Opera 10 appears as Default Browser 0. Unfortunately, StatCounter has shown a gradual decrease in Opera usage throughout this year. As more Opera users move to version 10 will this decline continue?

Opera 10 identifies itself as Opera 9.8. Alas, StatCounter does not recognise 9.8. The first Opera 10 alphas who identified as 10, until Opera changed id to 9.8 because some counters were not recognizing 10 as a valid browser. StatCounter can recognise the first alphas as Opera 10, but fails to see later versions.

From the above site the Opera use was Opera 10 - 0.8%, Opera 9.6 - 0.8%, but Default Browser achieves 1.8%! Is Opera appearing to lose usage because StatCounter fails to identify Opera 10?

Hopefully, Opera will change its browser id to 10, and StatCounter will start to recognise 9.8 - otherwise any progress Opera makes will be hidden.

Identification of Opera 10

On the 4th December Opera launched the first alpha of Opera 10.

A month later I have opened this blog using Opera 10 / Kiwi Linux to see how each counter reports this. 

OneStat: Other / Linux

SiteMeter: Default 10.00 Opera/10.00 (X11; Linux i586 ; U; en) Presto/2.2.0 (This visit does not count against total browser numbers, Opera 10 is obviously not among SiteMeters known browsers).

StatCounter: Opera 10 / Linux.

GoStats: Opera 10 / Linux.

log24: Opera / Linux (Log24 lists Opera 9 as Opera 9).

eXTReMEtracking: Other / Linux.

Motigo: Opera 10 / Linux.

So full marks to: Motigo, GoStats, and, StatCounter, plus a commendable result for log24.

This test shows either the flexibility of a counter, i.e. being able to create a new variant from the information given, or that the counter is maintained efficiently, with new variants being added soon after release.