Chicago (IL) – The browsing audience mix should continue to a normal pattern with the end of summer. But at least as far as August is concerned, there has been no change in recent market share trends. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) continues to decline and Firefox inches closer to the 20% mark, despite visible gains for IE8, market research firm Net Applications said.
Over the past months, it seemed as if IE was especially vulnerable to summer month browsing patterns, showing substantial swings in daily browser market share and more frequent drops below the 70% barrier. If history will repeat itself, IE should show a more stable market share from now on, but there is no denying that Firefox has accelerated its pace of growth.
In August, Internet Explorer saw its growth in July to fall into negative territory: It dropped by almost one full percentage point, despite an apparently successful IE8 beta 2 launch. Safari gained usage share primarily on the heels of Mac market share gains and the iPhone 3G launch, which brought millions new mobile Safari users to the fold.
Microsoft's market-leading Internet Explorer reversed came in at 72.15% market share in August (including all IE8 versions), down 0.87% from 73.02% a month ago. Last month's change in audience mix that contributed to IE's sequential growth has shifted much more towards the usual patterns, but that obviously has not helped Microsoft yet.
IE8 beta 2 has seen a significant rise in usage share within last five days of August. The first IE8 beta was estimated at a share of about 0.04% while the launch of beta 2 increased that number by a factor of 5.5. "With the release of beta 2 on August 27th, Internet Explorer 8.0 usage share has started to jump," Net Applications said. "Within three days of its release, usage share was already 500% above the peak beta 1 usage share."
IE8 beta 2 hit a 0.22% share on August 31 and continues to marginally increase its share of the market, climbing to 0.23% yesterday. The strong growth in such a short time isn't surprising for a major new beta of the leading browser brand. Many users are downloading IE8 beta 2 to testdrive the new features the first beta lacked. Net Applications noted that the new features include "a much improved address bar, private mode browsing, better tabs and improved navigation."
Firefox increased its share of the market to 19.73% in August, up 0.51% from 19.22% a month ago.
Safari grew by 0.23 percentage points sequentially to 6.37% in August, up from 6.14% in July. The sudden spike in Safari usage share is contributed mainly to iPhone 3G launch in July that led to significant increase in the handset user base. This is reflected in August operating system usage share as Mac OS accounted for 7.86% of usage share, while the iPhone OS was estimated at 0.30%, up from 0.19% in July.
Opera remains at number four with 0.74% usage share, up 0.05% from a month ago.
Over the past months, it seemed as if IE was especially vulnerable to summer month browsing patterns, showing substantial swings in daily browser market share and more frequent drops below the 70% barrier. If history will repeat itself, IE should show a more stable market share from now on, but there is no denying that Firefox has accelerated its pace of growth.
In August, Internet Explorer saw its growth in July to fall into negative territory: It dropped by almost one full percentage point, despite an apparently successful IE8 beta 2 launch. Safari gained usage share primarily on the heels of Mac market share gains and the iPhone 3G launch, which brought millions new mobile Safari users to the fold.
Microsoft's market-leading Internet Explorer reversed came in at 72.15% market share in August (including all IE8 versions), down 0.87% from 73.02% a month ago. Last month's change in audience mix that contributed to IE's sequential growth has shifted much more towards the usual patterns, but that obviously has not helped Microsoft yet.
IE8 beta 2 has seen a significant rise in usage share within last five days of August. The first IE8 beta was estimated at a share of about 0.04% while the launch of beta 2 increased that number by a factor of 5.5. "With the release of beta 2 on August 27th, Internet Explorer 8.0 usage share has started to jump," Net Applications said. "Within three days of its release, usage share was already 500% above the peak beta 1 usage share."
IE8 beta 2 hit a 0.22% share on August 31 and continues to marginally increase its share of the market, climbing to 0.23% yesterday. The strong growth in such a short time isn't surprising for a major new beta of the leading browser brand. Many users are downloading IE8 beta 2 to testdrive the new features the first beta lacked. Net Applications noted that the new features include "a much improved address bar, private mode browsing, better tabs and improved navigation."
Firefox increased its share of the market to 19.73% in August, up 0.51% from 19.22% a month ago.
Safari grew by 0.23 percentage points sequentially to 6.37% in August, up from 6.14% in July. The sudden spike in Safari usage share is contributed mainly to iPhone 3G launch in July that led to significant increase in the handset user base. This is reflected in August operating system usage share as Mac OS accounted for 7.86% of usage share, while the iPhone OS was estimated at 0.30%, up from 0.19% in July.
Opera remains at number four with 0.74% usage share, up 0.05% from a month ago.