6 ms·

Since March, IE Lost 11.4 Percent Share To Firefox, Safari, And Chrome

61 points by vaksel 17y ago

echair 17y ago
Looks like just since January the combined market share of IE versions has declined from 73% to 55%. That is a dramatic change. More significant, probably than a temporary spike in search share driven by ads.
michaelawill 17y ago
Looks like Microsoft is going to have to come up with a new angle of attack. Hiding $10,000 on an IE-only website doesn't seem to have cut it.
- SwellJoe 17y ago
  I bet hiding $100,000 on an IE-only website would totally do the trick, though.
  - mikedouglas 17y ago
    What about a website that only vomits on IE users?
- extension 17y ago
  Maybe they should hide some malware on a Firefox-only site?
  - rbanffy 17y ago
    Like that unwanted .NET plug-in for Windows users?
buugs 17y ago
It looks like a lot of IE 7 went to IE 8 not the "new browsers" maybe IE6 users are switching over though. I still know plenty of people who won't switch because they like the way ie6 looks and plenty more who don't know firefox is a browser on campus computers. edit: Most of those people don't even know what a browser is and if you tell them to open up their browser they say "do you mean the internet?"
- vaksel 17y ago
  Since January IE7 went from 53.7% down to 30.79%. For a net drop of 22.91%. In that same period IE8 went up from 1% to 15.23%. A net gain of 14.23%. So the upgrade there cost Microsoft 8.68%. And then there is an extra 10% drop for IE6
  - deleted 17y ago
    [deleted]
pedalpete 17y ago
Great to see IE7's significant drop, should make life easier on developers. Does anybody know how these stats are gathered, or what they mean when they say 'market share'? Is it % of internet traffic requests by browser? or % of downloads/installs? I'm wondering if browser market share is based on users primary browser, using stats from companies like compete, or if it is based on downloads or some other metric. I have IE, Safari And Opera only for testing purposes, I do most development in Firefox due to firebug, and use Chrome as my main browser. So how would I be counted in this survey? I think this is important because if it is based on % of traffic, non-OEM browsers (Firefox, Chrome) could appear to have more traffic than default installed browsers (IE/Safari) simply because the users of Firefox & Chrome spend more time on more sites. Thoughts?
- seldo 17y ago
  At Yahoo our "browser share" stats mean "unique visitors using this browser". A certain amount of effort goes into de-duplicating users to get the "unique" score, but there's a pretty big margin of error. Page views are not taken into account, and downloads/installs are absolutely not considered (because nobody has reliable numbers on those anyway, not even the browser makers).
snewe 17y ago
In fact, IE's market share fell 17% (65.8-55.4)/65.8. Oh Techcrunch.
- barredo 17y ago
  11% of the total, right?
  - snewe 17y ago
    Yes, but suppose it fell 11 percentage points from 90%. That would be a smaller real drop.
sho 17y ago
The really, really good news is the fall of IE6. Currently 7.6%. 5% should be an important milestone in its decline into irrelevance. Hopefully when that is attained - and it looks like it could be soon - we can all kiss that nightmare of a browser goodbye for good.
- vaksel 17y ago
  I say kick it now. Only 9% of people use IE6, that # will continue to dwindle. The current rate of drop for IE6 is 2% a month. So it'll probably go down to 5% within 4-6 months. No sense in supporting a browser that will become irrelevant in 6 months.
  - antirez 17y ago
    > No sense in supporting a browser that will become irrelevant in 6 months. and not a browser like another, one that will require radical changes to your site code in order to barely work.
    - erlanger 17y ago
      Depends on what you're doing. IE6 causes more JS problems than HTML/CSS.
      - antirez 17y ago
        Sure, with "site code" I mean HTML + CSS + Javascript
      - jpcx01 17y ago
        Doesn't IE6 have almost the exact same JS Engine as IE8?
  - newacc 17y ago
    i dont know how they calc the stats - IE is already dying or may be dead .... this is because there will be mix-up(layers) on the top of IE, for example it is possible that all PCs that came with IE6 pre-installed cant be taken in to the account as most of them might be using other browsers. If you calc the pure downloads then IE is dead.... users have multiple browsers but they rarely use IE - it is sad that MS killed netscape to make it sort of mandatory to have IE, but still they couldn't sustain the lead - when people bypass your product and specially go on the net to download your competitor's product that means you're nearly DEAD. and BTW who is the competitor? the same guy whose product you killed years a go!!!! GOOD REVENGE !!!! NICE JOB, Eric Schmidt !!!
chaosmachine 17y ago
It would be nice if they could pick colors that aren't almost identical for their graph lines.
jpcx01 17y ago
This will accelerate greatly if Microsoft doesnt get IE9 out the door with comparable javascript speeds. It took Firefox a while, but its finally performing as fast as Safari & Chrome. Lots of people use apps like gmail and google maps, and if they see one browser running them silky smooth, while the other is a jerky mess, they'll be compelled to switch.

61 points by vaksel 17y ago

Looks like just since January the combined market share of IE versions has declined from 73% to 55%. That is a dramatic change. More significant, probably than a temporary spike in search share driven by ads.

michaelawill 17y ago

Looks like Microsoft is going to have to come up with a new angle of attack. Hiding $10,000 on an IE-only website doesn't seem to have cut it.

SwellJoe 17y ago
I bet hiding $100,000 on an IE-only website would totally do the trick, though.
- mikedouglas 17y ago
  What about a website that only vomits on IE users?
extension 17y ago
Maybe they should hide some malware on a Firefox-only site?
- rbanffy 17y ago
  Like that unwanted .NET plug-in for Windows users?

buugs 17y ago

It looks like a lot of IE 7 went to IE 8 not the "new browsers" maybe IE6 users are switching over though. I still know plenty of people who won't switch because they like the way ie6 looks and plenty more who don't know firefox is a browser on campus computers. edit: Most of those people don't even know what a browser is and if you tell them to open up their browser they say "do you mean the internet?"

vaksel 17y ago
Since January IE7 went from 53.7% down to 30.79%. For a net drop of 22.91%. In that same period IE8 went up from 1% to 15.23%. A net gain of 14.23%. So the upgrade there cost Microsoft 8.68%. And then there is an extra 10% drop for IE6
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]

pedalpete 17y ago

Great to see IE7's significant drop, should make life easier on developers. Does anybody know how these stats are gathered, or what they mean when they say 'market share'? Is it % of internet traffic requests by browser? or % of downloads/installs? I'm wondering if browser market share is based on users primary browser, using stats from companies like compete, or if it is based on downloads or some other metric. I have IE, Safari And Opera only for testing purposes, I do most development in Firefox due to firebug, and use Chrome as my main browser. So how would I be counted in this survey? I think this is important because if it is based on % of traffic, non-OEM browsers (Firefox, Chrome) could appear to have more traffic than default installed browsers (IE/Safari) simply because the users of Firefox & Chrome spend more time on more sites. Thoughts?

seldo 17y ago
At Yahoo our "browser share" stats mean "unique visitors using this browser". A certain amount of effort goes into de-duplicating users to get the "unique" score, but there's a pretty big margin of error. Page views are not taken into account, and downloads/installs are absolutely not considered (because nobody has reliable numbers on those anyway, not even the browser makers).

snewe 17y ago

In fact, IE's market share fell 17% (65.8-55.4)/65.8. Oh Techcrunch.

barredo 17y ago
11% of the total, right?
- snewe 17y ago
  Yes, but suppose it fell 11 percentage points from 90%. That would be a smaller real drop.

sho 17y ago

The really, really good news is the fall of IE6. Currently 7.6%. 5% should be an important milestone in its decline into irrelevance. Hopefully when that is attained - and it looks like it could be soon - we can all kiss that nightmare of a browser goodbye for good.

vaksel 17y ago
I say kick it now. Only 9% of people use IE6, that # will continue to dwindle. The current rate of drop for IE6 is 2% a month. So it'll probably go down to 5% within 4-6 months. No sense in supporting a browser that will become irrelevant in 6 months.
- antirez 17y ago
  > No sense in supporting a browser that will become irrelevant in 6 months. and not a browser like another, one that will require radical changes to your site code in order to barely work.
  - erlanger 17y ago
    Depends on what you're doing. IE6 causes more JS problems than HTML/CSS.
    - antirez 17y ago
      Sure, with "site code" I mean HTML + CSS + Javascript
    - jpcx01 17y ago
      Doesn't IE6 have almost the exact same JS Engine as IE8?
- newacc 17y ago
  i dont know how they calc the stats - IE is already dying or may be dead .... this is because there will be mix-up(layers) on the top of IE, for example it is possible that all PCs that came with IE6 pre-installed cant be taken in to the account as most of them might be using other browsers. If you calc the pure downloads then IE is dead.... users have multiple browsers but they rarely use IE - it is sad that MS killed netscape to make it sort of mandatory to have IE, but still they couldn't sustain the lead - when people bypass your product and specially go on the net to download your competitor's product that means you're nearly DEAD. and BTW who is the competitor? the same guy whose product you killed years a go!!!! GOOD REVENGE !!!! NICE JOB, Eric Schmidt !!!

chaosmachine 17y ago

It would be nice if they could pick colors that aren't almost identical for their graph lines.

jpcx01 17y ago

This will accelerate greatly if Microsoft doesnt get IE9 out the door with comparable javascript speeds. It took Firefox a while, but its finally performing as fast as Safari & Chrome. Lots of people use apps like gmail and google maps, and if they see one browser running them silky smooth, while the other is a jerky mess, they'll be compelled to switch.