Firefox Market Share Drops Again, Chrome Set to Overtake

News
By Wolfgang Gruener
published

Once more, Firefox is at the losing end of browser market share ranks.

In September, Mozilla's browser dropped from 27.49 percent to 26.79 percent share and is now dangerously close to being surpassed by Chrome. According to data provided by StatCounter, IE also dropped and landed at 41.66 percent, which is a new low in StatCounter's charts and lowest level in 13 years, according to our own records. Chrome continues its pace and added almost half a point to 23.61 percent.

Far more interesting than the September market share data are the numbers that reflect the market shares on individual days, which reveals short-term trends. If we believe StatCounter's data, then both Firefox and IE are coming out of a bloody weekend, during which IE fell to as low as 38.39 percent, while Firefox held stable at 26.87 percent. However Chrome hit a record of 25.91 percent and was within less than 1 point of Firefox. If the current trend continues, then we will see Chrome exceeding Firefox market share on a weekend day within the next two weeks.

Firefox market share has been impacted by Mozilla's struggles to push out its rapid release versions fast enough and claim market share in the process - in a similar way Google does with Chrome. Meanwhile, Microsoft claims that IE9 is increasing its lead over its rivals on Windows 7 with more than 22 percent share (Microsoft cites Net Applications data). However, IE9 has remained below expectations overall. According to StatCounter, IE9 had about 10 percent market share over the weekend and an average of 9.59 percent in September.

Mozilla is clearly under pressure to find a way to fend off Google. Given the latest, numbers, however, the battle may already be lost - at least according to StatCounter.

Wolfgang Gruener
57 Comments Comment from the forums
  • DroKing
    Firefox doesnt need to try to fight to fend off google bc it will be just like IE where masses of morons reside ^_^
    Reply
  • bennaye
    drokingFirefox doesnt need to try to fight to fend off google bc it will be just like IE where masses of morons reside ^_^
    The numbers beg to differ.
    Reply
  • stonedatheist
    Go Chrome! It seemed like an insurmountable task to acquire browser market share dominance when it first came out, but now it seems likely. Firefox (almost) down, IE to go
    Reply
  • AMD X6850
    Not funny droking =P
    It's a shame cos Firefox has actually fixed up its major issues.
    It no longer uses a ton of memory, it starts quickly, freezing in one tab doesn't affect another.
    People complain about Flash crashing with Firefox but it's never happened to me so it's not an issue for me.

    Some people who use Chrome reckon its awesome (and themselves too XD) and start going on about it but when you ask them questions about why it is so, they just give me the generic "it's faster and better" but can't explain anything more than that. I'd say they are more of a dumbass than someone who uses IE because "it's there".
    Reply
  • billybobser
    Would rather a neutral party dealt with my browsing, instead of Microsoft or Google.

    Just running noscript lists a whole host of crap google is running in the background.
    Reply
  • nikorr
    Go Chrome! Doing it just right.
    Reply
  • amk-aka-Phantom
    IDC aboot market share. Opera has a low one and there're still users whom it suits. So far FF totally delivered and then some; there're tons of addons for everything, it's fast (I hate my ISP bottleneck, though!) and that's about all I need from a browser.

    P.S. I don't understand why Mozilla gets blamed for changing version numbers often and Google doesn't. It's like Google is a freakin' saint and everything that comes out of it is automatically wonderful. I like Google, but Picasa sucks, Google+ is BS and Chrome is meh. In. My. Opinion. Things might be different in other users' XP.
    Reply
  • 4745454b
    I'll stick with FF for now. IE is horrible, and I haven't used chrome. Why not? FF does everything I need. I see no need to use Chrome if FF does everything I need.

    AMD x6850, I've had the occasional Flash crash in FF, but its nothing to get worked up about.
    Reply
  • monktongaz
    Firefox + Adblock plus is great for me. I have no need for others.

    It's a shame that we will never see stats on the number of people who download software and inadvertently leave the completely unrelated 'install chrome, oh and also make it my default browser please' tickbox ticked.
    Reply
  • randomizer
    I don't see how anyone can be surprised when Chrome gets prominently advertised on Google's home page. Firefox doesn't receive this exposure; its market share increased because tech heads discovered that there was a world outside of IE. Now the masses are discovering the same thing, but through marketing rather than word of mouth.
    Reply