Chrome, IE market share creeps upward, Firefox losing ground

Rick

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According to data from analytics firm Net Applications, Internet Explorer may be making a slow come back after years of being on the decline. Although IE's market share only ticked upward from 53.83 to 54.09 percent, this is compounded by previous gains in recent months. In February, IE accounted for 52.84 percent of browsers used online.

Although the most widely-used version of Internet Explorer continues to be IE8, usage of IE9 continues to grow. Microsoft's latest browser weighs in at 15.91 versus IE8's 26.22 percent of market share. Perhaps those quirky ad compaigns actually are helping? And despite the company's best efforts to rid the world of IE6, its lingering ghost continues to haunt 7.11 percent of web-goers.

Chrome has been on the rise for quite some time, inching up from 18.85 to 18.87 percent of the browser market. Thanks to its aggressive updater, the most popular version of Chrome is the latest version: 18.

Most interestingly, while Chrome and IE enjoy small gains in market share, Firefox seems to be slipping. Although the drop is marginal -- 0.35 percent -- Firefox's decline from 20.55 to 20.20 percent may be in indication that Mozilla is losing the hearts and minds of Internet citizens. The most popular version of Firefox being used is 11.

When it comes to perusing the Internet on mobile devices, an overwhelming majority of those people (63.8 percent) are on iOS. Android comes in a distant second at 18.9 percent while Opera Mini rounds out the top three with 12.1 percent.

Net Applications' data suggests that people may prefer using their iPad over the iPhone for purposes of surfing the web. Despite iPhone sales being considerably higher than that of the iPad, the latter is used more frequently to access websites despite the former being a more ubiquitous device.

"The iPad and iPhone have been close in browsing share for the last several months," Net Applications said. "However, upon the release of the latest version of the iPad, its share has accelerated and now tops iPhone share 33.7 percent to 27.4 percent." Source: pcmag.com

Although both devices have been neck and neck in recent times, the release of the latest iPad coincided with an abrupt spike in iPad market share. This spike has allowed the Apple tablet to surpass iPhone surfers by more than 6 percent.

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So, since February IE is the only major browser to gain share while all of the others have declined. That's interesting.
 
I'm a Firefox user. Chrome doesn't offer side tabs anymore, so I am forced to use Firefox. Not that I would switch to Chrome, I love Firefox and am happy with a couple other Firefox exclusive add-ons.
 
ie user all the way. Tried all the rest extensively and came to the conclusion they don't offer me anything ie doesn't for my particular needs. Also never really had issues with ie like many seem to. Go figure.
 
Uh... its not like its still IE6 people. IE runs fine. And since FF isn't floating people's boats anymore, inevitably some are going back to IE and finding it sufficient. The others are trying chrome. But yeah, IE last time I used it wasn't bad. Just so used to FF.
 
And this clearly has nothing to do with FireFox knocking out a major release every other week? We're at FireFox 12 right now. Two months ago, we were only at FireFox 7. Give it six months and we'll be running FireFox 73.
 
Firefox is just super buggy for me now.

I am NOT using internet explorer. It sucks for me as a user, and it pisses me off as a developer for IE to block half of the webpage.
 
if any ppl behind firefox read this, then do it without thinking!

do as the others, intergrate your browser into to everything. then the throne will be yours again. google did it, and now they are strong, but only becouse of their trojan horse trick!

some few years ago, you could just click next all the way through an install. but today you have to be careful. becouse of all the intergrated stuff that google and the others put on.
 
Firefox is the only one with a decent bookmarks sidebar, and thus it is the browser I will use.
 
Opera has a fabulous bookmarks sidebar.
It actually has a sidebar for anything.
 
It is amazing that Maxthon is still flying under the radar; it is a great browser!
 
Does a side bookmark bar really matter that much? I see so many people complaining about not having a sidebar, but I dont get it.

Chrome is the number one used browser on my system, but I also have IE and Firefox on my quick launch bar.
 
Only time I use IE is on a fresh installation of Windows, and it's because I'm going to Mozilla's site...
 
Generally I tend to run software 'minimalistic' approach, i.e. install only what 'I can't live without'. So that kinda rule out most of the instabilities. Having said that, I regularly use IE9 + FF12 + FFx64 nightlies, without having a single crash for many years. I distinctly remember last time FF crashed on me was with FF4 Beta 4/5, never again. I suspect MS's implementation of SPDY (once implemented properly) should bring IE on par with Chrome.
 
Opera is my main browser, but I also have Firefox and IE open at the same time for different purposes (mainly other web email accounts). I tried Chrome but didn't like it, and I don't trust Google with my browsing data.
 
And since FF isn't floating people's boats anymore
Trying to pass off your opinion as popular opinion? It's unwise to believe everything you read in tech press articles... Firefox is still popular and popularity isn't everything anyway.
And this clearly has nothing to do with FireFox knocking out a major release every other week? We're at FireFox 12 right now. Two months ago, we were only at FireFox 7. Give it six months and we'll be running FireFox 73.
It's alienated some, but Chrome are doing much the same thing - I disagree with the new Firefox release schedule, but that alone wouldn't force me to abandon Firefox. The good thing is that there is an ESR release which has longer term support. Some people like to conveniently ignore that...
Firefox is just super buggy for me now.
I'm glad you said "for me".

Opera is a great browser - quite arguably better than Chrome and IE in every way, better than Firefox in many ways - but tiny "market share"... work it out.
 
It is amazing that Maxthon is still flying under the radar; it is a great browser!
I totally agree been using maxthon for 2yrs and love the reliability and the dual view feature. It is my most used browser for my desktop computer, however I use chrome for the laptop and netbook.
 
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