Still, early reviewers of Google's free download have given the new Chrome for iOS app mixed reviews.

"Safari is using the Nitro engine, and it's much much faster than this Chrome app," one reviewer said in an iTunes post.

In light of this criticism, we asked Net Applications Executive Vice President Vince Vizzaccaro about the new app's prospects with respect to trimming Safari's commanding share of the mobile browser market.

"I imagine a good number of people will try it out," Vizzaccaro told us Friday. "But if that's the experience they end up having, I have a hard time believing Chrome will gain much traction on iOS,"

On the other hand, given that this is Google's first attempt to launch Chrome on Apple's iOS platform, the browser's performance will likely improve over time, said Al Hilwa, director of Application Development Software at IDC.

"Playing on someone else's application platform -- and one that is as tightly controlled as iOS -- is always going to be a challenge," Hilwa told us Friday. "But it is a good move for Google to make the effort to be on iOS."

Mixed Reviews

Google's launch of a new iOS beachhead is significant because mobile devices, including tablets, account for 7.8 percent of global browser activities, according to Net Applications. And over the long haul, mobile browsing platforms are expected to command an ever-increasing share of the overall global market.

Though Microsoft 's Internet Explorer reigns supreme in the PC market segment, Net Applications reports that Apple's Safari leads the mobile segment with a 63.2 percent share and with the generic Android browser a distant second with a 19.2 percent share. Moreover, the Web metric firm attributes Safari's huge lead to the dominance of Apple's iPad in the tablet space.

What Google gains from the launch of Chrome for iOS is having a way to encourage Apple device users to sign into their Google accounts to sync the open tabs, bookmarks, passwords, and Omnibox data from your computer to your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. This enhances Google's opportunities to offer their subscribers enhanced services as they move from computing platforms running Windows to mobile devices running iOS. (continued...)

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