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Analysis – Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 has been available for 18 days and remains the company’s weakest web browser at launch since version 3. While the software now seems to be close to 4% market share, it appears to be unable to stop the bleeding of other IE versions. Since the beginning of the year, Mozilla’s Firefox has picked up more than half of the users IE lost; the other half went to Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome. This trend is evident in new market share numbers published by Net Applications and StatCounter, which show that Firefox hit a new record market share in March.
We have had some indications that Microsoft messed up the launch of its new browser before. Now, more than two weeks into the availability of the software, we have a better idea which browsers were affected by the introduction of the browser and which ones were not. To see a first trend, we had a close look at the market share data published by Net Applications – which publicly releases detailed numbers every day.
March 2009: Firefox clears 22%, IE drops below 67%
On an average basis, IE remains the dominant browser globally, according to Net Applications. However, the market share was 66.82%, the lowest level for IE in about a decade. Firefox marches on and came in at 22.05%, the highest number published by the market research firm so far. Safari climbed back up to 8.23%, after having dropped to 8.05% in February, and Google’s Chrome continued to gain slightly to 1.23%. For the month, IE was down 0.62 percentage points, Firefox up 0.28 points, Safari up by 0.21 points and Chrome up by 0.08 points. We will leave the Opera browser out of consideration in this article, as its share has always remained between 0.69% and 0.75% over the past year and has not shown substantial gains or losses. Its current share is estimated at 0.71%.
While we still have to wait for the first full month of availability of IE8, it is clear for now that the browser has not dented Firefox’ share and has trouble slowing the losses posted by IE7 and IE8. We feel that Net Applications’ numbers may even be a bit conservative in that regard. StatCounter, for example, estimates Firefox’ market share above 25%, with highs of more than 28% on weekend days (compared to Net Applications’ estimated highs of about 24%.)
Analysis thoughts: Week days, weekends, geographies
Clear answers from a browser usage share analysis is virtually impossible. There is no way to come up with an accurate sample of browser users globally, browser usage greatly varies on week days and weekends and different geographies prefer different browsers. In that view, a browser usage share analysis can indicate likely trends, at least if we assume that the numbers we are dealing with are somewhat correct. So take our results with a grain of salt.
In terms of weekends and weekdays, we here at TG Daily differentiate between consumer and professional browsers. Whereas most browsers fall into both categories, IE6 is a specific case as it is almost entirely used only in professional and corporate environments these days. IE6 has been certified for lots of corporate applications since its launch in August of 2001 and many of IT Managers have chosen not to move to a more recent IE version or another browser. IE6 is the reason why IE’s market share dips on weekends by as much as 4.2%, according to Net Applications, while Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Opera tend to gain – Firefox by more than 2 points and Safari by about 1.5 points in March.
We also know that IE is much more popular in the U.S. than it is in the rest of the world – and that IE8 has been adapted much quicker in the U.S. than it has in other geographies (which can be seen, for example, through hourly market share numbers posted by Net Applications.) Also, StatCounter recently reported that Firefox 3 has become the most popular browser with a share of 35.05%, exceeding Internet Explorer 7 (34.54%) for the first time. The market research firm said that overall Firefox market share is now only 10% behind Internet Explorer in Europe.
Read on the next page: Market share trends 2009, IE8 market share gains not strong enough, Waiting for October 2014
We have had some indications that Microsoft messed up the launch of its new browser before. Now, more than two weeks into the availability of the software, we have a better idea which browsers were affected by the introduction of the browser and which ones were not. To see a first trend, we had a close look at the market share data published by Net Applications – which publicly releases detailed numbers every day.
March 2009: Firefox clears 22%, IE drops below 67%
On an average basis, IE remains the dominant browser globally, according to Net Applications. However, the market share was 66.82%, the lowest level for IE in about a decade. Firefox marches on and came in at 22.05%, the highest number published by the market research firm so far. Safari climbed back up to 8.23%, after having dropped to 8.05% in February, and Google’s Chrome continued to gain slightly to 1.23%. For the month, IE was down 0.62 percentage points, Firefox up 0.28 points, Safari up by 0.21 points and Chrome up by 0.08 points. We will leave the Opera browser out of consideration in this article, as its share has always remained between 0.69% and 0.75% over the past year and has not shown substantial gains or losses. Its current share is estimated at 0.71%.
While we still have to wait for the first full month of availability of IE8, it is clear for now that the browser has not dented Firefox’ share and has trouble slowing the losses posted by IE7 and IE8. We feel that Net Applications’ numbers may even be a bit conservative in that regard. StatCounter, for example, estimates Firefox’ market share above 25%, with highs of more than 28% on weekend days (compared to Net Applications’ estimated highs of about 24%.)
Analysis thoughts: Week days, weekends, geographies
Clear answers from a browser usage share analysis is virtually impossible. There is no way to come up with an accurate sample of browser users globally, browser usage greatly varies on week days and weekends and different geographies prefer different browsers. In that view, a browser usage share analysis can indicate likely trends, at least if we assume that the numbers we are dealing with are somewhat correct. So take our results with a grain of salt.
In terms of weekends and weekdays, we here at TG Daily differentiate between consumer and professional browsers. Whereas most browsers fall into both categories, IE6 is a specific case as it is almost entirely used only in professional and corporate environments these days. IE6 has been certified for lots of corporate applications since its launch in August of 2001 and many of IT Managers have chosen not to move to a more recent IE version or another browser. IE6 is the reason why IE’s market share dips on weekends by as much as 4.2%, according to Net Applications, while Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Opera tend to gain – Firefox by more than 2 points and Safari by about 1.5 points in March.
We also know that IE is much more popular in the U.S. than it is in the rest of the world – and that IE8 has been adapted much quicker in the U.S. than it has in other geographies (which can be seen, for example, through hourly market share numbers posted by Net Applications.) Also, StatCounter recently reported that Firefox 3 has become the most popular browser with a share of 35.05%, exceeding Internet Explorer 7 (34.54%) for the first time. The market research firm said that overall Firefox market share is now only 10% behind Internet Explorer in Europe.
Read on the next page: Market share trends 2009, IE8 market share gains not strong enough, Waiting for October 2014