Slashdot Mirror
Firefox Momentum Slows
linumax wrote to mention an Information Week story about an apparent slowing of Firefox's usage growth. From the article: "San Diego-based WebSideStory released market share numbers for Firefox, IE, and other browsers that noted Firefox has crept up from April's 6.75 percent to September's 7.86 percent, a single percentage point gain in five months. During the first few months after its November, 2004, release, Firefox was adding another point each month. 'It looks like Firefox has hit the push-back point,' said Geoff Johnston, an analyst with WebSideStory. 'We always knew there was a finite number of early adopters out there and a finite number of Microsoft haters who would switch to something new, but we didn't know what that number was. It looks like we're approaching it.'"
Duh. Opera goes free (as in beer), firefox adoption takes a dive. Opera got several million downloads in the days after its free release...
Given the problems Firefox has with stability, speed, and memory use, I bet a lot of users switched. Opera doesn't have as many features, but it's much better at the basics.
Meanwhile, the average IE user probably still doesn't know there are other browsers...