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Firefox Gains on IE Again in June

kurtz_tan writes "Infoworld reported that Firefox increased its market share to 8.71 percent, up from 8 percent in May, while IE's share shrank to 86.56 percent from 87.23 percent. This is according to NetApplications.com. Since the beginning of the year, Firefox has increased its market share every month between 0.5 percent and 1 percent, mostly at the expense of IE. This means Firefox would cross the 10% market share by October."

34 of 357 comments (clear)

  1. Safari! Woo hoo! by Quiet_Desperation · · Score: 5, Funny

    We're number three! :-)

  2. firecow by fred+fleenblat · · Score: 5, Funny

    firefox/firefly I'm getting really confused...

    1. Re:firecow by Xugumad · · Score: 3, Funny

      Then you'll hate Firesomething. It randomly re-brands your (Firefox) browser :)

    2. Re:firecow by RichDice · · Score: 3, Funny
      I have a different association when I hear 'firecow'.

      This is a story that my wife told me that I think is fairly funny. My wife's parents are from Hong Kong and she mostly speaks Cantonese Chinese with them when she's at home, though my wife was born and raised in Toronto and English is her first language.

      One day, one of my wife's parents (I forget which) while speaking Cantonese asked her to go upstairs to get the firecow for the cell phone. My wife was completely baffled by this. So she talked it through with them and it turns out that the literal translation for "battery recharger" from Cantonese into English is -- firecow.

      You can't make this stuff up.

      Cheers,
      Richard

  3. News? by billieja2 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Is it really news though? I like to see these stats as much as the next guy, but i mean, give me a shout when it hits 25%.

    1. Re:News? by hchaos · · Score: 4, Funny
      Is it really news though? I like to see these stats as much as the next guy, but i mean, give me a shout when it hits 25%.
      I think that the news here is that they anticipate that Firefox's market share will soon become newsworthy.
  4. Mozilla by crayz · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Does this combine Mozilla Suite(Seamonkey) & Firefox data, or is it being separated?

    1. Re:Mozilla by line.at.infinity · · Score: 3, Informative

      They are counting the two separately:

      Firefox Market Share Falters

  5. Browser Threshold by TruePaige · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well, as we can see, this starts with the most tech savvy users switching and continues to less tech savvy users, but by the 10% barrier, will enough people be even tech savvy enough to understand that the Big e isn't the internet? That's my major concern right there. People like that are the ones that keep me up at night, fearing for the future of our society that continues to depend more on technology but has less and less understanding of it.

    1. Re:Browser Threshold by nine-times · · Score: 3, Interesting
      See, but the spread of Firefox doesn't really depend on real knowledge. If you're the geek who all your friends depend on, then the next time it comes up, tell each of your friends about how Firefox is sooooo much better, in ways that they don't even understand. Use technical jargon. At the same time, mention how everything bad that happens to their computer is because of IE. The next time they're having a conversation, they'll just channel your disembodied spirit, and they'll tell all their friends about how horrible IE is and about how great Firefox is.

      They don't have to understand it, it'll still spread like an urban myth. In other words, FUD works both ways.

    2. Re:Browser Threshold by stevesliva · · Score: 3, Interesting

      You're right, of course, but it would be most interesting if a software package such as Firefox could follow the course of the iPod-- be a huge success not because it is a bigger or geekier music player, but because it is a better designed music player, and cool, hip, a status symbol, etc et al whatever. So will Firefox grow just because it is more pleasant? Will it grow becuase it becomes chic?

      --
      Who do you get to be an expert to tell you something's not obvious? The least insightful person you can find? -J Roberts
  6. It's easy gain by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    When you in single percents it's easy to gain a couple more.

    Linux is gaining on Windows for 14 years now and still is in single digits :-)

  7. You can thank me for that... by IcarusMoth · · Score: 5, Funny

    Because I rebrand and reskin Firefox then install it on my clients' computers as "Internet Extreme". My saavier clients like how IEx prevents popups and spyware, and also like that it is from Microsoft so they know they can trust it.
    Ahhh saavy clients...

    1. Re:You can thank me for that... by IcarusMoth · · Score: 3, Informative

      I used Firesomething and deleted all of the extrainious stuff that allowed for random names, photoshopped IE's icon to add orange (fade to gold) flames to the bottom half, left the rest as blue.
      I used the Office 2003 themes from this guy to create the look and feel.

      tidied the whole package up into a selfextracting zip archive and with a nifty install script to handle all this crap and bingo bango, Internet Extreme and the clients do love it, If I can find a place to host the package, I will.

    2. Re:You can thank me for that... by IcarusMoth · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Internet Extreme is only for my 'saaviest' of clients, the clients who can name thier computer by its model year, and use MicrosoftXP. Still most of these clients come to see the light of Firefox with a little sit down walk through.
      But some people insist on using IE (you know hurting themselves) and those are the ones I reserve IEx for. It gives them a little peace of mind, and a lot of safety. I can't drive out 30 miles every weekend to work on the same infestations that nuke an unprotected system on broadband week after week. Its sort of like that folders commercial, I'll tell them eventually.
      yeah I might get sued, i never really thought about it much though considering the total number of IEx users is less than 5.

  8. The real test... by RUFFyamahaRYDER · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The real test will be when the new IE 7 comes out... I predict (and hope) that FireFox will continue to gain even when the "new and improved" IE get's here. http://www.getfirefox.com/

  9. I'm asking why by Exitar · · Score: 3, Interesting

    www.w3schools.com changed the way it shows browser statistics?
    They are saying that FF use is decreasing.
    Maybe because Bill is worried about this and...

    http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.a sp

    1. Re:I'm asking why by TyrelHaveman · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That's just browsers hitting the W3Schools web site, which, as they say right at the top of your link, is a "special" website. It is certainly not representative of the entire Internet.

  10. Here's a week of RubyForge HTTP log stats... by tcopeland · · Score: 3, Informative
    ...mostly Mozilla:
    select count(*), browser from activity_log group by browser;
    count | browser
    --------+---------
    278 | OPERA
    239072 | OTHER
    499518 | MOZILLA
    102863 | IE
    It's a hosting site for open source Ruby projects, so it's a different user profile than most sites. But still, word.
  11. What this really means by concept10 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    As everyday mom and pop users depend on Firefox instead of IE for browsing and more companies support Firefox, more exploits and holes will start to show up. I'm just glad that they update it frequently. Theres nothing like safe and secure browsing. It also means that more people will look to FOSS solutions. I have to admit, Firefox got me started.

  12. In other news by ZakuSage · · Score: 3, Funny

    A recent study confirms 86.56 percent of computer users have massive amounts of malware on their computer.

  13. Even better in Europe by sl956 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Please remember that this 8.71 percent comes from a study of mostly north-american websites (NetApplication clients).
    A similar study is done each month in Europe and the figures are quite different:
    Finland 28.96%
    Czech Rep. 24.72%
    Germany 24.18%
    Hungary 20.37%
    Poland 20.13%
    Sweden 15.91%
    Switzerland 15.83%
    France 15.12%
    Austria 14.59%
    Estonia 14.24%
    Greece 14.00%
    Romania 12.73%
    Belgium 12.61%
    U.K. 12.29%
    Ireland 11.64%
    Portugal 11.39%
    Norway 11.20%
    Spain 10.82%
    Italy 10.38%
    Netherland 10.20%
    Monaco 09.08%
    Luxemburg 08.95%
    Danemark 08.48%
    Lituania 03.68%
    src: XiTi
  14. Re:I love Firefox but... by siplus · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Except you are quite wrong about MS waiting to be "fasionably late".

    They are already "working* on IE. Firefox is the reason your (presumably) beloved XP SP2 has a lot of the features it has. Firefox is the reason longhorn will have IE7 and not a patched IE6. Firefox is the reason IE7 will have "tabbed browsing" (haha... anyway...).

    MS has put many programming hours into IE; the fact that you don't know about it is reason enough to believe MS to be inept.

    No wonder MS isn't worried that much. it has stockholders like you who don't pay attention and don't know any better. It thrives on fools like you

  15. Statistics and Trends by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Since the beginning of the year, Firefox has increased its market share every month between 0.5 percent and 1 percent, mostly at the expense of IE. This means Firefox would cross the 10% market share by October.

    No, that doesn't mean anything. If the trend continues then Firefox will cross the 10% threshold, but in order to determine whether that will realistically happen, one has to examine the underlying reasons for the current trend.

    What are those factors? My guess would be that home users are continuing to adopt Firefox in favor of IE, and so I think it would be fair to say that it is likely that Firefox's growth will continue.

    However, I think Firefox will hit a stumbling block when it comes to the edge of "business workstation" browser territory. Unlike the article predicts, I don't think Firefox will begin to take over, and at that point one could expect the growth trend to slow as the home user region alone becomes saturated (whether that will happen before or after 10%--probably after--is uncertain).

    IE is too well integrated into the operating system and works too well within the Windows environment for it to be displaced. When a company admin wants to lock down users to limited access so that they spend their time working and not surfing the Internet, why install Firefox?

    At my office the Internet access is controlled by Websense. I use a limited number of applications (Outlook and proprietary software) in order to do my job. There is no need to upgrade/replace IE with Firefox because I don't visit unsafe sites, I don't need a lower impact browser, and I don't need Firefox's features. To install another browser (trust me, I would love to get Opera on there myself) would, in all aspects, unneeded.

    It's going to take a lot more than the current advantages of Firefox for the browser to supplant IE in the workplace, and there's no telling where IE7 will move the standards (hah!) bar. In a business environment, there's a huge advantage given to that whole integrated-browser-into-the-OS thing.

  16. Re:did anyone notice the Microsoft logo?? by speights_pride! · · Score: 5, Funny

    No, as I'm using Adblock ;-)

  17. 100% by only 2013! (Gotta love math). Death to IE! by wernst · · Score: 5, Funny
    Firefox has increased its market share every month between 0.5 percent and 1 percent, mostly at the expense of IE. This means Firefox would cross the 10% market share by October.

    Of course, this means that (assuming 1% growth per month for easy math):

    14% by Jan 2006
    26% by Jan 2007
    38% by Jan 2008
    50% by Jan 2009
    62% by Jan 2010
    74% by Jan 2011
    86% by Jan 2012
    98% by Jan 2013
    100% by Mar 2013

    Sounds about right: no more IE in only 8 short years. The math couldn't possibly be wrong...

  18. Here is to hoping by mfloy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The only issue here is if the momentum will keep going strong, or will they lose focus or face obstacles? One of their main advantages is security, but with popularity comes more people trying to penetrate security.

  19. My solution by CdBee · · Score: 4, Funny

    "This cleanup is free. The next one, if the need for it is caused by bad practice, won't be"

    - follow this up with standard teach-in about browser security, risks posed by using the mainstream browser that is widely targeted, introduction of a different browser that doesn't have these particular problems

    - provide printed sheet about system security for them to read if the teach-in wasn't clear enough

    - install Firefox and AdBlock with a default set of REGEX filters to kill the worst excesses, and suggest they play with NoScript for ultimate safety, now that the browser-crashing bug that it sometimes triggers has been fixed.
    Bingo

    --
    I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
  20. Opera stats still hidden by takeya · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm still waiting for the day when Opera releases a version of their browser that identifies by default as Opera instead of IE. It will be really interesting to see how much this impacts both IE's and Opera's market stats.

    1. Re:Opera stats still hidden by jmlsteele · · Score: 4, Informative

      Not entirely. Some scripts will actually detect Opera as IE when spoofing, but any decent stats program will detect it properly as Opera.

      Here are the HTTP_USER_AGENT lines for Opera for the various Identity methods.

      Opera: Opera/8.01 (Windows NT 5.1; U; en)
      Mozilla: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; U; en) Opera 8.01
      IE: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; en) Opera 8.01

      As you can clearly see "Opera" is mentioned in all 3, including the version number.

  21. Exclusivity? by SeventyBang · · Score: 4, Insightful



    Do the statistics allow for overlap; i.e.people who use multiple browsers? I realize that may be a small percentage, but if the published numbers are going to be to the second decimal point, it's got to weigh in there somewhere.

    Those of us who use three (or more), either in regular use or for the purposes of testing - and just get accustomed to using multiples - should factor somewhere.


  22. Notice this however by rbarreira · · Score: 3, Informative

    One thing to note - in the end it says this:

    Attention, il est important de noter que cette étude a été effectuée sur un week-end, où l'utilisation de Firefox est toujours plus importante qu'en semaine. La différence demeure importante entre les usages domicile et les usages au bureau (2 à 3 points en moyenne).

    Which roughly means, if my french skills haven't yet totally dissapeared, that the study was made in the weekened, which slighly slants the study because Firefox is more used at people's homes than at work. But the last sentence says the difference between Firefox @ home and @ work is only of 2 or 3%, on average.

    --

    The AACS key is NOT 0xF606EEFD628B1CA427BEA93A9CA9773F
  23. Hey, you're missing some numbers there. by Stankatz · · Score: 5, Funny
    ...IE's share shrank to 86.56 percent from 87.23 percent.
    I think that's supposed to be 86.563348237 percent from 87.23172395 percent. Also, someone should invent a symbol that stands for "percent" so we wouldn't have to spell it out every time.
  24. You definitely do NOT have a Math degree. by Dark+Coder · · Score: 3, Interesting

    WHOA! Most faulty!

    Since there are 60% Windows 2000 out there, and 11% Windows 98SE too!

    Your Longhorn will at best put a 1% dent in the first year (or whats left of a year).

    Not enough to stop the steady but absolutely sure eroding slide of Internet Explod^Hrer's market share.

    The only way out the Microsoft conudrum is to FIX INTERNET EXPLORER right the first time, on all Windows platforms (oh, and Mac as well; Oh, didn't IE appear on Sun/OS?).

    Any economist can tell you that when your infrastructure is eroding due to lack of maintenance, it will REACH the point of no-return due to inaction.

    Larger the infrastructure or user-installed base, the larger the inertia of motion required to change the tide. Me think, this is what occurred to IE.