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Data from CIA shows massive Internet Explorer gain, and largest Firefox loss ever
Firefox, which has always relied on its stronghold of Europe, has seen its largest loss ever, losing over 1% of its market share in a single month. This is due to Europe's very slow population growth and almost-saturated Internet market: China, for example, gained 100 million new users since the CIA last updated its statistics; the U.K., by comparison, has gained just 3 million.
As far as IE9 goes, it now represents a rather large 2% share of Windows 7 installations. Microsoft tells us that the RC has been downloaded 11 million times since its release three weeks ago, bringing its total number of beta and alpha downloads up to 36 million.
We'll end with a little bit of theorizing (and please chime in, if you have an opposing theory). Why is Internet Explorer the browser of choice in developing countries? Both Firefox and IE have great language/locale support, so it can't be that. It's not that Firefox is unknown in Asia, either -- it's huge in Thailand and Indonesia.
Could it simply be down to piracy? China is notorious for its number of pirate Windows installs, with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer even claiming that as 9 in 10 copies of Windows in China are pirated. The numbers seem to bear it out, too: last month, thanks to the updated CIA figures, Windows XP had its smallest market share loss in over a year.
Comments
29
Subscribe to commentsTerence EdenMar 1st 2011 6:37AM
You may like to search for the phrase "margin of error".
Sorry to be snarky, but your headline doesn't correlate with fluctuations of less than one percent.
Sebastian AnthonyMar 1st 2011 6:38AM
@Terence Eden Doesn't 'margin of error' depend on the size of the sample?
I'm pretty sure that 1% is statistically significant when you're dealing with 2 billion Internet users.
nomiMar 2nd 2011 12:15AM
@Sebastian Anthony 1% is still just 1% . We can't call it MASSIVE no matter how large the scale of the chart is.
Lately, DLS headlines are becoming over exaggerated.
DrekeMar 2nd 2011 2:16AM
@Sebastian Anthony So Net Applications's sample consists of 2 billion users?
I don't think so! In fact, it's only about 160 million or so.
DrekeMar 2nd 2011 12:06PM
@Sebastian Anthony Actually, Opera has more users than NA's sample size (170 vs. 160 million)!
GryzorMar 1st 2011 6:45AM
Probably because the FF 4.0 betas sucked big... I myself stopped using FF after b4, since all it did was to introduce problems...
JoshMar 1st 2011 11:36AM
@Gryzor
So you stopped using a browser altogether because a beta, not meant for the end user yet, was causing problems?
Yeah, that makes sense.
DrekeMar 2nd 2011 2:17AM
@Gryzor So why didn't it happen until NOW? I mean, if it sucked for all these months...
More likely a statistical fluke in NetApps' data.
m0r1artyMar 1st 2011 6:55AM
Seb,
It's the age old adage of IE coming with Windows - I doubt they got the European version pirated over in China. Don't forget the Premier of China visited Bill Gates before the then US President, George Bush, in April of 2006 - It might be the conspiratorial bone in me, but I'd guess that access to the viewing habits of the populous of a communist country might be of some use to their government. If it's a pirated copy then are privacy issues, as a right, still a concern to Microsoft?
As for Thailand and Indonesia and their apparent preference for Firefox I'd wager that poor internet connections + a plethora of extensions which are available for Firefox make it the browser of choice.
Where is Chrome in all of this though? Or Safari??
Interesting information at any rate and I wonder how it will balance out across the globe over the next few years - particularly South America and Africa.
Sebastian AnthonyMar 2nd 2011 7:03AM
@m0r1arty Yep, I'm almost certain it's because of IE being bundled with Windows.
I don't know if Africa is due to explode in terms of Internet users for a few years yet -- South America is already doing very well, though!
Mike in TaiwanMar 1st 2011 7:08AM
Well, I can explain why the Mainland Chinese use IE. Programs like PPStream, PPLive, and Kugou (streaming TV, movies, and music) actually require you to use Internet Explorer. Also, mainlanders don't know how to write proper code, so their websites only look correct in IE6. Their software is so dependent on Windows Explorer runtimes that they won't even open at all (even if incorrectly) in Wine or Crossover. They have their own browsers (skinned IE6), and don't give a crap about Firefox or Chrome for that matter.
It's the same crap in Taiwan, too, but at least people are starting to use Chrome. Go on any Asian website and look through the HTML...its all tables and codes...!! It irritates me very much that a region of the world that is so "technologically advanced" can't manage to use code written after 1995.
I couldn't use my mac to print out my tuition bill from a Taiwanese university because it required IE and Windows, yes, it told me mac wasn't supported...in the end on the PC it was a friggin' table-ized html file with incorrect encoding anyway!! (constant messed up encoding is another thing....just use unicode!!!!)
Sebastian AnthonyMar 2nd 2011 7:04AM
@Mike in Taiwan Ah, yes, I've heard about this before :(
Thanks for the 'insider' info, though. It's interesting.
There's so much going on in Asia that I (well, most of us) have no idea about.
DrakkenfyreMar 1st 2011 7:08AM
Maybe it's due to Firefox becoming a bloated, RAM-sucking excuse for extensions.
LuluMar 1st 2011 7:54AM
@Drakkenfyre
I pretty much agree with you. It's a essentially a browser so it still comes down to speed and ease of use at the end of the day.
I stopped using FF when Chrome came out. Chrome is my default browser with IE9(RC) as the secondary one.
DrekeMar 2nd 2011 2:18AM
@Drakkenfyre How can that be the case, when Chrome uses more RAM than Firefox by design?
And why now? Firefox 4 has been in beta for MONTHS.
chris currieMar 2nd 2011 6:28AM
And the CIA has never lied to us right? Any one remember the WMD's in Iraq....
DrekeMar 2nd 2011 12:09PM
@chris currie Actually, IIRC, the CIA said all along that there weren't any.
Marcos GarciaMar 1st 2011 8:34AM
In Brazil, I blame it for laziness. My guess is that people thinks "why get Firefox if IE does the same for me?".
Piracy is really high, also, but it doesn't get 9 of 10.
Sebastian AnthonyMar 2nd 2011 7:02AM
@Marcos Garcia Thanks for the insight :)
ronmosesMar 1st 2011 9:09AM
Wait until I tell my wife that 0.77% is a "massive gain"!!!