Chicago (IL) – Recent updates and media buzz surrounding Safari and Firefox apparently helped the two browser to gain market share at the expense of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, according to a new survey released by Net Applications. Apple’s and Mozilla’s software have been chipping away share from Microsoft’s browser for some time now and it appears that Microsoft could use a convincing new browser rather sooner than later.

There is no immediate concern for Microsoft that the company is losing its dominance in the browser market, but there is certainly a trend that Firefox and Safari are gaining traction. The Internet Explorer still holds a commanding 73.01%, according to Net Applications. That number, however, is down 0.74% points or about 1% from 73.75% in May and 74.83% in April.

While Microsoft isn’t quite confronted with a landslide loss, Firefox has been gaining steadily over the past quarter and is now approaching the 20% market share mark for the first time. Net Applications estimates Firefox’ June market share at 19.03%, up 3% or 0.62 points from 18.41% in May. Firefox was listed at 17.76% in April.

Apple’s Safari is also advancing and ranks third with a current share of 6.31%, up from 6.25% in May and 5.81% in April. Opera Software was also able to post some gains as part of the launch of its Opera 9.5 web browser. Opera is listed with 0.73% share, up from 0.71% in May and 0.69% in April.   

Internet Explorer will receive a major update with version 8, which is expected to debut in the fourth quarter. Beta 2 of the browser is planned to be released in August.

FF

Jul 02, 2008 09:16     

While Apple and Opera made small gains the only one that matters here is Firefox. Safari is bug and security hole ridden and should be removed from all computers. Opera is OK but it reminds me to much of Netscape whenever I used it, which is depressing.
Ricko report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

percentage...what about the real number of user.

Jul 02, 2008 14:56     

I don't really want just percentage...it's just a market share. but in real life, IE may still gain number of users, just slower than firefox. the whole market in term of users is growing, so just compare % is kind of pointless...may be everyone is gaining more user, just one fast than other. then agin , MS can't package their browser together with their o/s..so there is a lot less newbies to go use IE by default... How may firefix you see in office? I saw none so far in big coporates I worked in. There is no commercial softwares certified in firefox and no one will pay to certify/QA them.... So it's use at your own risk.... I don't see IE lossing out in coporate arena. as for browser...you see more of other browser because of more and more mobile device like iphone and internet phones...that's why you see increase in usage of opera and Safari ..I don't see them advancing in desktop area...probably just laptop for apple product.... Doesn't matter, they are all buggy and full of security holes.

wow report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -1

prefer Seamonkey

Jul 03, 2008 09:51     

I prefer using SeaMonkey on both my eComStation computer http://www.ecomstationi.com and my Windows computer. http://www.mozilla.org :)
TomLeeM/BigWarpGuy report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1