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Internet Explorer market share falling like a ton of bricks
Last month, research firm NetApplications reported that Microsoft's share of the web browser market had dropped to 69.77%. Today the number is down to 67.55%. Google Chrome use has apparently picked up a bit, although the browser still has just over 1% of the market. And Firefox continues to pick up new users every month. The browser now represents over 21% of the market. But one of the most interesting factors is the rise of Apple's Safari web browser, which is now used by more than 8% of computer users.
In other words, part of the reason Microsoft is losing its share of the browser market is because there's another company doing exactly the same thing Microsoft does: bundling a web browser with a popular operating system. When I wrote last month that the EU was considering forcing Microsoft to unbundle Internet Explorer from Windows as an antitrus measure, many commenters asked why Apple didn't have to do the same thing with Safari. Perhaps as the market share of OS X and Safari continues to grow, we could see regulators taking a closer look at Apple as well.
[via ReadWriteWeb]
Comments
26
Subscribe to commentsJash SayaniFeb 2nd 2009 4:41PM
Damn! IE is totally screwed !!
BTW, heres a cool browser: http://www.jashsayani.com/lunascape-combines-all-browsers-out-there/
Taylor. Yes, Taylor.Feb 2nd 2009 4:41PM
And my companie's website STILL only works in IE, thanks to whoever designed it in 2004, who used all sorts of weird IE tricks that i can't seem to follow, to fix. I even tried forcing FF into quirks mode but that doesn't help. I need to rewrite our site, but I'm not much of a webdesigner, I'm a Mechanical Engineer, and I'm busy as hell. I'm the only one here who could figure it....
-Taylor
Taylor. Yes, Taylor.Feb 2nd 2009 4:41PM
*figure it out though* is what i meant...
ToddFeb 2nd 2009 4:44PM
Ha! Wait until IE8 gets crammed down everyone's throat as a "security update"...that chart will look like October 08 stock market.
http://www.spreadfirefox.com
We are fast approaching The Singularity where all points collapse in on Redmond. By binding all products together, making them so painful to untie, should there be a huge drop in one product ( ie IE ) all the others will get dragged down with it.
Eli GundryFeb 2nd 2009 5:52PM
From an end user stand point, I could care less about IE8. As a developer standpoint, I can't wait for IE8 as it will finally fully support web standards. Do you have any idea how annoying it is to develop for a browser that goes off and does its own little thing instead of following the standards everyone else follows? And, despite it's falling popularity, the majority of the web still uses it, so ignoring Internet Explorer is out of the option.
Todd, do you honestly expect IE's market share to fall when version 8 comes out? Have you even tried it? It's a huge improvement over 7, but still nowhere near as good a FF3.
NeilFeb 2nd 2009 5:39PM
That's a ton of bricks type drop? Ah ok, whatever you say.
Anyways, I'm a firefox guy myself...
eerie quark dollFeb 2nd 2009 5:54PM
The user agent which the iPhone browser reports is also Safari which muddies the waters on this whole thing. (Not that i'm not hoping for the death of IE - just pointing out facts)
hazardFeb 3rd 2009 8:22AM
What makes a iPhone user any less of a netizen than someone sitting in front of a desktop?
MysteriusFeb 3rd 2009 8:23AM
@hazard: The web experience on a mobile device still isn't quite the same as even the web on a netbook. But more to the point, if other mobile browsers aren't being counted while Mobile Safari is, that could skew the numbers.
alex1jamFeb 2nd 2009 8:45PM
ie must be eliminated because less monopoly (more quality). Safari, Chrome and Firefox are way better.
AnthonyFeb 2nd 2009 8:45PM
I believe that the statistics on safari are wrong, since the mobile safari used on the millions of iPhones and iPod touches shows up as the computer version.
So those numbers might be just a tad bit off.
TroyFeb 2nd 2009 9:30PM
Apple's Safari isn't as tightly integrated into Mac OS X as IE is into Windows. You can't even run Windows Update without bringing up IE.
A useful piece of information would be OS breakdown. While all the IE hits are from Windows, or those few who bother to change their user agent setting, Firefox could be from Mac users.
MarkFeb 3rd 2009 8:23AM
As of Vista, Windows Update no longer uses IE. It's a standalone program.
nicbotFeb 3rd 2009 12:17PM
"Apple's Safari isn't as tightly integrated into Mac OS X as IE is into Windows. You can't even run Windows Update without bringing up IE."
That's old news...as of Vista this is not true. Windows update functions similar to apple update. It runs as it's own program.
TroyFeb 3rd 2009 8:47PM
Yeah, but everyone is running XP still ;)
dcFeb 3rd 2009 8:23AM
For me the reason IE is dropping is because they don't seem to be able to update it fast enough. All the other browsers get incremental updates steadily throughout the year. IE only gets critical security patches and no updates to improve.
We saw this with IE6 -> 7 and now it's happening with IE7 -> 8. They can't bring out a new version every 4 years and expect people wait for them.
If what people say about IE8 is true then I think Firefox is going to get close to 30% this year.
MikeFeb 3rd 2009 8:23AM
Microsoft got IE ahead with two techniques: 1. tie IE into Windows so that users can't delete it and when IE crashed, there was a chance for a system crash as well, and 2. rewrite Javascript (and a little html) so that it worked only with IE.
No other browser developer did anything but try to make the best browser possible.
POCFeb 3rd 2009 8:23AM
I don´t understand the "browser market".
There is no market since people never pay for a browser.
POCFeb 3rd 2009 8:21AM
I don`t understand the browsers market.
There is no market since noone is paying for a browser.
xcaineFeb 3rd 2009 8:32AM
The EU commented on why they did not go after Apple when the made the MS ruling.
Apples OS is a "niche product" as far as the EU is concerned, and other rules apply.