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IE Drops To Single-Digit Market Share

Posted by timothy on from the but-high-in-the-single-digits dept.

New submitter fplatten writes "I think this is all you need to see to know what legacy Steve Ballmer has left at Microsoft, where its IE browser market share has collapsed from a high of 86% in 2002 to just 9% now. I guess this is just another in a long list of tech companies that failed to maintain its dominant market share. Also, IE may be the one product that never really deserved it, but just piggybacked on Windows, and users left in droves once decent (more secure) alternatives and standards became popular." Microsoft stockholders probably don't feel too badly about the Ballmer legacy overall, though -- browser choice is a pretty small arm of the octopus.

11 of 390 comments (clear)

  1. More reprsentative stats please by Richard_at_work · · Score: 5, Informative

    W3Schools has a very skewed demographic, I wouldn't take their figures to be a true representative across the board.

    My companies websites (Insurance) have an IE share of about 40%.

    1. Re:More reprsentative stats please by jones_supa · · Score: 5, Informative

      StatCounter's 12/2013 data shows IE being at 24.91%.

    2. Re:More reprsentative stats please by Mordok-DestroyerOfWo · · Score: 5, Informative

      I keep the stats on 12 state government websites. As sad as it may be, the lowest I've ever seen IE (taken as a whole) dip was 55%. And, for the record every site is tested and compliant on a multitude of browsers and not a single one recommends IE. We're getting there, but we're not at single digits yet.

      --
      "Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
    3. Re:More reprsentative stats please by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 4, Informative

      My hobby (veggie gardening) website shows the following, out of 7034 visits this month (per Google Analytics):

      Safari (appears to be iOS for the most part): 1,828 / 25.99%
      Internet Explorer (must be all the Surface users eh?): 1,564 / 22.23%
      Chrome: 1,511 / 21.48%
      Firefox: 1,368 / 19.45%

      Fifth place, at 5%, is "Android browser" which I'm guessing is that gosh-awful thing from Android 2.2 / 2.3...

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    4. Re:More reprsentative stats please by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Informative

      I just popped up our site's stats We have had about 31,000 visits this month (according to awstats). IE comes in at 23%. The winner is Safari at 26.1%, so that tells use there are a helluva lot of iPhones out there. Firefox and Mozilla come in at 17.3% and 10%. Chrome comes in at 16.1%.

      What it tells me, most of all, is that smart devices are becoming the dominant surfing platforms, and that not just IE, but Windows in general in slipping down the list.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    5. Re:More reprsentative stats please by noh8rz10 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Tom's Hardware has a good rep, right? not a shill review site? I think it is like Anandtech.

      http://www.tomshardware.com/re...

      Results start on page 4. ie10 doesn't blow away everybody else, but it's middle of the pack on most metrics and best or near best on some metrics. notably, there's no consistent winner across the board, it's not like any one browser is the king.

      before it used to be 2x worse than the others!

  2. Serious sample bias by linuxwrangler · · Score: 4, Informative

    The statistics are "collected from W3Schools' log-files..." So an English-language site for people interested in web development is now considered an accurate proxy for browser usage? I think not. Predictably, the results are way out of line with, well, pretty much everyone:

    http://www.netmarketshare.com/...
    http://gs.statcounter.com/
    http://www.w3counter.com/globa...
    http://browsermarketshare.com/
    http://clicky.com/marketshare/...

    --

    ~~~~~~~
    "You are not remembered for doing what is expected of you." - Atul Chitnis
  3. statcounter numbers by Cyko_01 · · Score: 4, Informative

    IE at 22.82% and falling
    chrome at 43.67% and rising
    firefox at 18.88% and falling slightly
    safari at 9.75% and rising slightly

    there is a strong correlation between chrome and IE in both gains and losses

  4. Re:Stock price by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    100 shares purchased on January 3, 2000 would have cost $11,656.00.

    With stock splits and dividends, current value is $9,941.88 for a minus 14.71% return.

    http://www.microsoft.com/investor/Stock/StockSplit/stockcalc.aspx

  5. Re:Stock price by nedlohs · · Score: 4, Informative

    No he isn't. Microsoft's own calculator ( http://www.microsoft.com/inves... ) says that if you invested in MS stock on 1/1/2000 and reinvested all dividends back into them then you've managed a -14.71% return (ignoring inflation).

    If you had waited until 1/1/2001 on the other hand you would have managed a 129.18% return (again ignoring inflation).

    Of course I'm sure that has nothing to with the dot.com boom and bust or anything...

  6. THen they are idiots! by Dcnjoe60 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Microsoft stockholders probably don't feel too badly about the Ballmer legacy overall, though -- browser choice is a pretty small arm of the octopus.

    Microsoft's stock is 20.89% higher than it was on this date in 2002. That is an average yearly increase of 1.74%. US Savings Bonds had a greater return over that time period! So, if their shareholders aren't upset, they should be.