Mozilla marches on despite unveiling of IE8

by Stevie Smith - Apr 6 2009, 16:00

The user traction attributed to Mozilla’s open-source Firefox browser continues to grow despite the recent bells-and-whistles unveiling of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 (IE8), according to new market share figures released by Net Applications and StatCounter.

Furthermore, a report posted by technology news site TGDaily offers that IE8 has emerged from the popularity gate as the weakest of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browsers since version 3.

While around four percent of the browsing market is now utilising IE8 almost three weeks after it was released, either via adoption or upgrade, existing iterations of Microsoft’s dominant platform appear to be losing out as users look to migrate to alternative browser choices.

This pans out with Firefox apparently sucking up almost half of those stepping into the wilderness away from Internet Explorer since the turn of the year, with Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome browsers attracting the remainder.

Net Applications’ monthly figures for March show that although Internet Explorer still holds the lion’s share of the browsing market thanks to 66.82 percent coverage, its lead is the lowest it has been for almost 10 years.

Notably, Firefox currently claims 22.05 percent of the market, which is its highest ever share, while Safari has clawed its way up to 8.23 percent from 8.05 percent in February, and Chrome improved its modest positioning by moving up to 1.23 percent.

Interestingly, the number-crunching team at StatCounter suggest that Firefox’s monthly gain could well have it posting a share above 25 percent, with highs of around 28 percent on weekends – which is when the majority of business-based IE6 users are logged off and using something else at home.

Want regular updates from The Tech Herald? Follow us on Twitter.

The Tech Herald: Whose browser is more secure - Microsoft's or Mozilla's?

The Tech Herald: Mozilla releases Firefox 3.0.7 and addresses critical flaws

Around the Web