Firefox Browser Share Tops 20% in November; Microsoft Still Number One

The Mozilla Firefox browser exceeded 20% market share in November 2008 for the first full month since tracking began, and remains the second-most-popular web browser behind Microsoft’s (MSFT) Internet Explorer, according to data from Net Applications, which compiles shares for browsers, search engine referrals and operating systems.

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Internet Explorer remains the market-share leader, with more than two-thirds (69.77%) of all usage, while Firefox had 20.78% share and Apple’s (AAPL) Safari captured 7.13%. Other browsers, such as Chrome, Opera and Netscape all had shares less than 1%.

Firefox share jumped about eight tenths of a percent, which Net Applications said is much higher than average, in part because of increased residential use during the month. Firefox has a much larger residential share than corporate share.

In addition to showing steady growth for the past several years, the research cited the following four factors for the increase:

• The US election: Firefox usage share increased significantly in the days surrounding November 4th (especially in some non-US countries such as Japan), then held roughly steady for the month.
• The US Thanksgiving holiday: Firefox share jumped starting on Wednesday the 26th until the end of the month because of increased residential use.
• Extra weekend days in November: The average 30-day month has 8.57 weekend days, while November had 10. Again, residential use on weekends drove the share increasae.
• Higher unemployment: With an increase in unemployment, a higher than typical percentage of people browsed from home rather than the office.

Moreover, Firefox’s share trend is pointing to above 20% share for December and beyond, Net Applications predicted.

“Reaching 20 percent worldwide market share is a significant milestone for Firefox,” said Mozilla’s CEO, John Lilly. It’s a huge achievement by the global Mozilla community, one that just a few years ago most would have considered impossible. The open web is more vibrant than ever, and the thousands of Mozilla contributors around the world have played a major role in making it that way.”

About the research: Net Applications collects data from the browsers of site visitors to its exclusive on-demand network of live stats customers. The data is compiled from approximately 160 million visitors per month. The information published is an aggregate of the data from this network of hosted website statistics.

Comments

[mkreisel:]

Microsoft is the IBM of 1988. The day of reckoning will come in a few years.

Bill Gates knows this, and he's bailing out before his own creation destroys his legacy. That's also why he's selling MSFT like there is no tomorrow.

When was the last time Microsoft delivered any decent product? One can feed off a monopoly only for so long.

Jan 04 10:52 PM

[VolcanoGod:]

Microsoft is going to be schooled eventually on what not to do. It is already underway with Windows Vista and soon to release Windows 7. They didn't learn ANYTHING from Vista. Most corporations will avoid or be pushed into other options just like they were forced to do with Windows Vista.

Once a development team grows to the size of Microsoft's with management that knows little about quality coding, you get what we have seen the past 7 years. Bloatware that does everything it can to slow down how YOU want to work... Not Microsoft and their lost conception of what consumer needs/wants.

Linux or Apple/Mac will be Microsoft's undoing as it it already stealing market share from Microsoft's loyal customers which are fed up with crappy software with VERY poor performance....


Discontinue or ALLOW?

***Umm I vote for Discontinue.***

If we could only purchase PC's with Mac O/S or a quality Linux distro..... :(

Jan 04 11:21 PM

[Jade Queen:]

My son is in a Ph.D. program at MIT, supported by work he got after he did his one year's master's there. When his old windows laptop, bought for him by his subsidy, gave out, it was decided he would have a new all-bells-and-whistles Apple laptop. He loves it, and he is in geophysics, so he is a serious number-cruncher. He is not an artsy-craftsy person for which Apple used to be, and still is, so famous.

I have also to say that Free Geek, in Portland, OR, installs pretty good Linux on everything that goes out their doors. True geeks around here tend to like Linux a lot, and my son's math genius friend (800 boards) from his undergraduate days, has always used Linux.

Microsoft, more than Apple, seems to consider its customers to be its slaves. Apple and Linux are not like that, in my experience, which I admit, is limited.

Disclosure: Seriously contemplating AAPL purchase.

Jan 05 01:02 PM