Internet Explorer Loses 11.4 Percent Share to Firefox, Safari, and Chrome

The new browser wars are on. More than a decade after Microsoft (MSFT) killed off Netscape with Internet Explorer, competition in the browser market has never been stronger. Just last week, Mozilla released Firefox 3.5, which has now been downloaded nearly 14 million times. Earlier in June, Apple (AAPL) released Safari 4. In March, Microsoft introduced Internet Explorer 8, and Google (GOOG) came out with a speedier beta of its Chrome browser.

Some early data is coming in showing relative market share and how fast people are upgrading. If you look at the chart above from Statcounter, it indicates that since March Internet Explorer has lost 11.4 percent market share to other browsers. That is the combined market share of IE8, IE7, and IE6. Certainly IE8 (the light blue line) has been growing strong since its release last March, capturing 16.7 percent of the market as of July 4. Those strong gains make up for most of the drop in IE7’s market share from 49.1 percent in March to 30.1 percent yesterday, indicating that Microsoft is doing a good job of getting existing IE7 users to upgrade at a steady pace. And in mid-June, IE8 finally surpassed IE6, which still stubbornly holds a 7.6 percent share. Add those three up, (IE6+IE7+IE8), however, and IE all together holds only a 54.4 percent market share versus the 65.8 percent combined share in March, 2009.

In just over three months, Internet Explorer has seen its overall market share erode by 11.4 percent. Where did that go? It went to Firefox, Safari, and Chrome. Nearly 5 percent of that, or about half, went to Firefox 3.0, which currently has 27.6 percent market share. That doesn’t count last week’s upgrade. See the dotted line just below the light blue IE8 line? That is a combined set of “other” browsers and appears to include Firefox 3.5, Safari 4, and Chrome 2.0.

If you look at a 30-day version of that same chart, it shows Safari 4 with 4 percent market share and Chrome with 3 percent market share. It doesn’t yet break out Firefox 3.5, but if you assume that makes up the bulk of the remaining dotted line which jumped to nearly pass IE6 in the past week, you can figure out more or less which browsers are taking share from Microsoft. (I’ve used data from the most recent daily chart in this post, but embedded the monthly chart below which has data as of June 30).

As I said, this is early data from one source. Net Applications, another commonly cited source for browser market share, is currently reviewing its June numbers, but I have a feeling they will show similar trends. (This Wikipedia page shows other browser market share sources, most of them haven’t been updated since March). It is difficult to make any firm conclusions at this point, since market share is shifting so rapidly as every major (and minor) browser tries to convince users to upgrade.

But we are in the midst of a major upgrade cycle simultaneously across IE, FireFox, and Safari (with the Chrome wild card thrown in). When all is said and done, we might see a major shake-up in market share and almost definitely will see leadership pass from IE7 to another browser. The question is will that be IE8 or Firefox? Whichever one wins, the good news is that IE6 is finally dying.

Source: StatCounter Global Stats - Browser Version Market Share

Original post

Comments

[Josh B Thom...:]

hopefully this will shake-up Microsoft to question, doubt and challenge themselves in a way that produces positive results.

Jul 06 11:03 AM

[rrtzmd:]

...that's not hard to understand...I'm gradually switching to Firefox myself...it's just as easy to use and, unlike with Explorer, I have never had it crash or lock up on a webpage...so far, unlike Explorer, it's been able to handle every webpage I've thrown at it...finally, there are multiple apps available that allow me to customize it the way I want it...Microsoft better start cooking up something better fast!

Jul 06 12:15 PM

[Peter Iwano...:]

I use Chrome at home and wish I could use it on every computer I use. IE is ridiculously slow, crashes multiple times and is all around just a terrible web browser.

Definitely doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why IE is losing so much market share. Good article.

Jul 06 12:34 PM

[oljoey:]

I switched from IE to Firefox and was glad to be done with the MS browser. I recently also began using Safari and like it even more that Firefox..haven't tried the new Firefox upgrade but one thing is for sure... I will never go back to IE. Its gonna be either Firefox or Safari for me for now on; just haven't decided which yet.

Jul 06 02:13 PM

[Thomas Jeff...:]

Perhaps with IE use on the wane more Web developers finally will get back to adhering to accepted Web standards: acid3.acidtests.org/

Jul 06 04:12 PM

[goobler:]

Interestingly enough, I just bought a new laptop and tried to download Firefox last night. Of course, since it's a Windows XP machine, IE was the default browser. Every time I got to the Firefox website & clicked on the download button, I would get a message that "Internet Explorer has experienced a problem and needs to shut down". It wouldn't let me download the competing browser! This happened six times before I finally gave up & went to bed. Coincidence? I THINK NOT!

Jul 06 04:56 PM

[dragon10:]

I do use bought and opera too, but IE only for bank servers, that`s have to change.

On Jul 06 02:13 PM oljoey wrote:

> I switched from IE to Firefox and was glad to be done with the MS
> browser. I recently also began using Safari and like it even more
> that Firefox..haven't tried the new Firefox upgrade but one thing
> is for sure... I will never go back to IE. Its gonna be either Firefox
> or Safari for me for now on; just haven't decided which yet.

Jul 06 06:25 PM

[Neil Anderson:]

NetApplications are reviewing their June numbers. I'll bet they are double-checking them.

Jul 06 07:41 PM

[Jon T:]

"hopefully this will shake-up Microsoft to question, doubt and challenge themselves in a way that produces positive results."

Fat chance.

Jul 07 10:18 AM

[Koby Menach...:]

Amazing. The most important thing is IE6 losing market share!

Jul 07 10:50 AM

[brewer:]

Safari is the best browser on the market, IMHO. Part of the loss of I.E. share is related to the continual migration of more and more users to OS X. I.E. is finally starting to lose it's battle to pervert real web standards.

Jul 07 11:21 AM