Major Web Browsers Global Market Share Performance

This will the last analysis of the performance of the big guys in the Web browser arena for year 2010.  The yearly trend has been a steady decline for Microsoft Internet Explorer and a consistent rise of Google Chrome and Apple Safari.  The rest of the gang has more or less held their ground which means they still have loyal supporters behind them.

Below are the latest statistics for the month of December 2010 recently rolled out by the more reliable Internet source regarding this subject.  I’m referring to Net Applications.

1. Internet Explorer:  57.08 – 58.44 = (1.36)
2. Firefox:  22.81 – 22.76 = 0.05
3. Chrome:  9.98 – 9.26 = 0.72
4. Safari:  5.89 – 5.55 = 0.34
5. Opera:  2.23 – 2.20 = 0.03
6. Others:  2.01 – 1.79 = 0.22

Credit: Data from Net Applications and chart by Stephen Shankland/CNET.

COMMENTS:

Microsoft Internet Explorer continues its free fall.  It lost a walloping 1.36 points in December.  They’ve tried different strategies in an effort to charge course, but so far the trend has not been reversed.  Recently a Microsoft spokesman said, “I’m sure Microsoft’s people will do its best to claw back market share lost to Firefox, Chrome and Safari.  Microsoft have proved in the past to overcome its failure and turn itself on the head of a pin.” That was a bad joke, if you ask me.

Microsoft can take consolation that its share losses have come from older versions of its browser. IE6, an advanced browser when released nearly a decade ago but now despised among Web developers for retarding progress on the Web, dropped from 13.7 percent in November to 13.1 percent in December. IE7 dropped from 9.5 percent to 8.8 percent.

Mozilla Firefox hopped slightly forward gaining 0.05 percent in December.  They lost their momentum and their burning desire to break the 25 percent landmark.  That isn’t happening anytime soon.

Google Chrome is an unstoppable train advancing full speed ahead.  They increased their market share by 0.72 percent which is very impressive. Chrome’s gains have come largely at the expense of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, whose usage share has been dropping for years.  Google’s inroads into the mobile industry is further increasing its brand equity, plus its ubiquitous presence in the search engine territory.  I see Chrome moving upwards and toppling Firefox from second place.  It’s only a matter or time.

For months now, Chrome has risen. Most recently, it rose from 9.3 percent in November statistics to almost 10 percent in December, according to Net Applications. That’s helpful for Google’s ambition to speed up the Web overall; Chrome is a vehicle by which the company can explore, develop, and promote new features, such as Native Client, SPDY, WebP, and False Start, that Google hopes will speed the Web and make it a more powerful foundation for applications.

Mozilla’s Firefox, the second-place browser, stayed flat at about 22.81 percent, Apple’s Safari rose from 5.55 percent to 5.89 percent, and Opera was flat at about 2.23 percent. Chrome and Safari grew at the expense of IE, which dropped from 58.43 percent to 57.08 percent.

Norwegian Opera has kept its ground advancing a feeble 0.03 percent in December.  Take notice that because browser usage overall is increasing, even percentages that remain flat from month to month still mean a growing user base.  I use Opera Mini in my Chinese cellphone and it feel very nice and intuitive to use, much easier to use than Safari, the mobile version.  My expectations are that Opera will continue to grow due to the Halo Effect of Opera Mini which could trickle down to Opera, the desktop version.

The waiting game starts all over again for one more month, until we get fresh information from Net Applications.  Good Day.

Source:  Net Applications – Top Browsers Share Trend

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