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IE Market Share Drops Below 70%
Mike writes "Microsoft's market share in the browser dropped below 70% for the first time in eight years, while Mozilla broke the 20% barrier for the first time in its history. It's too early to tell for sure, but if Net Applications' numbers are correct, then Microsoft's Internet Explorer will end 2008 with a historic market share loss in a software segment Microsoft believes is key to its business."
This data is a month old. It was discussed on slashdot before (but I don't remember if it got its own article). Why not wait a day or so and post year-end statistics?
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
It's been renamed several times, somewhat refactored, had a few parts replaced and a lot more added, but that code base was once the most popular browser on the planet.
--Markus
and if you listen slightly to the West, you just might hear some of them land...
And if you listen slightly to the East, you just might hear some stock brokers land... *splat*
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
I remember when MSIE made the web, when they started putting it with the OS is when the internet started taking off.
MS created IE because the web was taking off without them. Netscape Navigator was supposedly $14.95, but IIRC the Beta's were free. MS didn't want to lose control of the desktop and was actively discouraging a the pre-installation of Netscape.
Until then, it was still a geeks paradise, Mom and pop's had to pay hundred's to be hooked up. Around that time, it was Click on MSIE, the computer would dial up, make an account, and you could use the internet.
What the heck are you talking about? MSN? MSN was created in response to CompuServe and AOL and morphed into an ISP in response to the already prevalent trend. There was nothing magical about it. I guess the bundling made it easier to get started, but all the pieces were in place and MS was actively fighting others trying to thread together the pieces. Again, this was created in response to the existing trend, not the cause. Existing ISPs were price competitive and covered the spectrum of AOL hand-holding to mom and pop ISPs.
Peoples hate of MS blinds them to the fact that they have done some hugely good things in the process to get to were they are.
The vision and momentum of the Internet came from outside of MS. If it weren't for efforts like Mosaic and Netscape, MS would not have created it. If it were not for efforts like Firefox, than the Internet would be IE only and we'd be stuck with IE 6 and ActiveX hell. I'm not saying that MS is evil, they are simply opportunistic (as they should be) and I don't feel like giving credit were credit is not due.
Some privacy policy Slashdot.
I've just posted December and 2008 total stats for all of the browsers along with a bit of analysis. IE lost another point and a half of share in December and will finish the year down almost 8 points from where it started the year. That's not just bad, that's awful, horrible, really really bad. It's especially bad considering that 2008 was a record year for new PC sales, with ~300,000,000 new PCs shipping with IE7 as the default browser!! They shipped 300 million copies of IE as the default and still lost 8 points of share during the year. More at my blog (it really is worth reading if you're interested in this topic. i promise.) Browser Market Share for December and 2008 - A
1. ActiveX is an all-encompassing Microsoft object-handling infrastructure (descendant of OLE, DDE, COM and DCOM) that is also implemented as a part of remotely-installable code in a browser. A page with ActiveX controls can only work if ActiveX controls are allowed to run in a browser, and Windows permission models prevents any kind of isolation, so this technology is inherently insecure regardless of the purpose of the controls.
2. Mozilla plugins are applications that use browser's interface model. They can be installed or uninstalled to view various kinds of data identified by MIME Content-Type. Same type of data can be handled by different plugins or external applications, and pages can easily make plugins-supported data optional. Also it's important that page is not tied direcly to any executable code -- user has to install plugin like any other application.
The only plugin that was ever used for control of navigation was Flash -- and the idea became very unpopular very soon because it lacks browser-provided infrastructure (history, bookmarks, cookie management). On the other hand, ActiveX is primarily used for either highy intrusive things that are meant to break security models (Windows updates, antiviruses, not to mention viruses and worms themselves) or serve as a replacement for IE abysmal support for scripting and interactive graphics.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
Are you sure *MARKET*share means what you think it does? Microsoft only "sells" IE as packaged with XP, Vista and Windows Mobile. Few customers license the Trident layout engine. It's no wonder IE has shit for marketshare.
The Mozilla foundation does pretty well for themselves. Not a huge moneymaker but they're afloat and doing ok.
Opera is also doing great licensing their browser and its components all over the place.
Internet Explorer simply isn't a moneymaker for Microsoft. Microsoft probably spends more money maintaining IE than they do selling/licensing it.
Take a look at Zimbra:
http://www.zimbra.com/