The browser debate continues, as a shift in market share for all the “big guys” continues to hold strong.  While Internet Explorer still accounts for over 70% of worldwide browser usage, its market share continues to take a nose dive now that steady competition from the likes of Safari and Chrome are looming. 

A study conducted by Net Applications, Inc. analyzed the browsers used to access some 40,000 sites in the company’s scopes.  According to ComputerWorld, IE usage slipped for the seventh month this year to hover at around 71.5% market share- down from 72.2% in August.  While it’s not a huge loss, it still represents a 4.5% slip since the first of the year.  The introduction of Google’s Chrome browser likely attributed to IE’s loss over the last few months, though the newest browser still holds under 1% of the browser market.

Interestingly enough, even though Chrome demands the least market share, it still beat out Opera for the number four spot overall.  Maybe Opera should stick to mobile browsers, though personally I really like the styling of its desktop counterpart.  Also interesting is the fact that Safari was the only browser that gained overall market share over the past few months, though it’s not necessarily surprising to Mac fans.  Being that Chrome isn’t supported on Macs, it was the only browser that didn’t face direct competition from the feared Google browser, and likely attributed to the gain.

As for Firefox, it still seems to be holding strong at 19.5% market share, though it was down slightly from 19.7% in August- representing one of only two decreases this year.  Since Firefox’s upgrade to version 3.0 started in mid-August, the numbers seem to be split between it and the older version 2.0.  51% of those using 2.0 made the switch to the newest version.  While Firefox 2.0 owned 11.5% of the market and Firefox 3.0 accounted for 7.7% in August, last month the positions had flipped: In September, Firefox 2.0 had only 5.8% of the market, while Firefox 3.0 owned 13.3%.  This shows how the following for anything Mozilla has to offer will likely always be strong. 

While Firefox remains my favorite overall, Chrome is becoming a close second.  I’ve been using it primarily for a few weeks now, and though there are still some tweaks that need to be made, the overall styling and potential are very promising.  It should be interesting to see how the number play out this time next year after Chrome has a chance to dig itself in, and make itself known as a true competitor.

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Entry was posted on Wednesday, October 1st, 2008 at 9:30 pm under Software.

Read more entries by Justin Montgomery.
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