Submitted by Internet Explorer has reversed a years-long slide in browser usage, at least for the month of June, reclaiming share at the expense of Firefox. The change in fortunes was significant enough that Microsoft couldn’t resist crowing about IE’s progress in a blog post on Thursday.
The question is how long it is going to increase ? Bay be this is just few months, it will again go down. The reason for the increase could be
(1) Many are trying IE 9 platform preview
(2) Home PCs are getting upgraded to Windows 7, where IE is the default browser.
IE has *always* been the default browser in Windows ever since its creation. It could be though that many are trying IE8 for the first time, given how few people actually keep their systems updated. IE8 isn’t horrible, but I find browsing without my Firefox add-ons painful these days. Flashblock, Ghostery, and Noscript are must haves for me.
IE has always been the default browser but I think IE8 is different in that a lot of users find it good enough for everyday use. I know a couple people that used to run FF but after getting a new computer they didn’t bother installing anything else.
My default browser is Chrome but I would rather use IE8 over Firefox. FF isn’t the svelte browser that it used to be and IE8 has a better interface for W7.
Has anyone even looked at the ‘other’ column ? around/almost 25% of the total.
http://marketshare.hitslink.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=3
Statcounter agrees:
http://gs.statcounter.com/
Aug, 2009 IE was at 61.45%; they had a .8% growth in Oct, 2009 and a .42% growth in Jun, 2010. The rest of the months where all losses. As of Jun, 2010 they have a 54.8% share.
Firefox started at 8.88% had growth for all months except the last two. May 2010 had a .23% drop and Jun 2010 had a .16% drop. Firefox’s ending June with a 20.75% market share.
From the numbers, I don’t see why they are saying that Firefox is losing to IE 8. In May 2010 both IE & Firefox had a loss (.36% & .23%) which means that the Other Browser took the users. In June IE picked up .42% while Firefox lost .16%; thus, Other Browser lost .26% to IE.
Overall IE has lost 6.65% of market share and Firefox has gained 11.87%. Thus, Firefox has been taken 6.65% share from IE and 5.22% share from Other Browser.
I also question the Other browser; I would like to know what the Safari share is.. They only break out Chrome 4 and the current version is 5; also what was the share for Chrome 3 which was usable…
The funny part is the IE 6 verse IE 7 numbers… IE 7 currently has a 11.79% share and IE 6 has a 17.17% share
It looks like everyone is dropping IE 7 for IE 8 and very few people are leaving IE 6. It appears that anyone who can drop IE 6 can just use IE 8. Now if only IE 6 would die!
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Side note: at work one of my vendors suggested installing the “IE Tab” plugin for Firefox to make Firefox compatible with their website I would like to know what plug-in I should use for my Mac OS X machine to make Firefox compatible…
Firefox is definitely showing a decline, especially in NA.
http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-na-monthly-200906-201007
I trust Statcounter to Net Applications since the latter uses their own weighting system.
I’m not sure why anyone cares if Firefox has 9% or 90%. The days of IE6-only websites are over and that is what counts.
Edited 2010-07-06 06:24 UTC
Two paragraphs above, they were writing Opera is at 2.3%.
And the chart is titled “browser usage trend”. So I’m wondering how informed they are as to the “browser usage” of Opera Mini (or Opera Mobile) and whether the “browser usage” is meant for “market share” or for “user experience”. If the former option is what they meant, then they’re not well informed. There’s no way anybody in their right mind would think that Opera Mini (and/or Mobile) has 2.3% market share.
IE usage on smartphones: 0%
Even the HD2, WinMo’s last big holdout, has Opera as the default browser
From a development point of view, IE is still the ugly duckling amongst the other beautiful browsers, though it does appear that with 9, they’ve slathered on some make-up.
The firm say the move is to put an end to heated online arguments and topics started purely to cause trouble.
————
Umesh
http://bestbuyisa.com“ Best Buy ISA
The firm say the move is to put an end to heated online arguments and topics started purely to cause trouble.
____________
Umesh
http://bestbuyisa.com“ Best Buy ISA