Internet Explorer loses .71% market share during August, IE6 still most used?

The numbers for August are in with Internet Explorer taking a small .71% loss in market share according to Net Applications. Microsoft's web browser dropped from 67.68% to 66.97%, while Firefox gained .51%, moving from 22.47% to 22.98%. Safari held steady at 4.07%, and Chrome furthered its lead on Opera's 2.04%, increasing from 2.59% to 2.84%.

Users of Internet Explorer still seem to be relying on dated versions. IE 6.0 was the most used at 25%, IE 7.0 held 21%, IE 8.0 15%, and IE 8.0 compatibility mode 2%. This may change over the coming months, as Windows 7 is due in a few weeks and it is bundled with IE 8.0. Also worth noting is that Windows 7's debut may accelerate the decline of IE, because the European editions will allow users to choose rival browsers as default during the first boot.

TechSpot's internal statistics show a less positive picture for Microsoft and Apple for that matter. About 43% of TS readers are using some version of Internet Explorer, 42% use Firefox, 6% are using Chrome, while Opera and Safari have 3% usage share a piece. Our readers seem to be keeping up with updates far better than the average user, 47% of Internet Explorer users are already running IE 8.0, which would indicate a certain preference for Microsoft's browser regardless of the alternatives available. Some 32% are still using IE7 and 20% IE6. In the case of Firefox, over 68% of our readers are running Firefox 3.5 with the majority of the remainder using version 3.0.