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Internet Explorer Market Share at 10-Yr Low Point

By - Source: Tom's Hardware US | B 49 comments

Is Internet Explorer slipping?

The internet browser market has never been as competitive as it is now. With the entry of Google Chome and the continued loyalty of Firefox users, now web users have more choice than just to use the browser that came with their OS, be it Apple's Safari or Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

According to tracking firm Net Applications, reported by Conceivably Tech overall internet browser usage during April had Internet Explorer's share at a low point that it hasn't experienced since 1999.

Microsoft's Internet Explorer family still held the lion's share at 59.95 percent, while Firefox gained 0.07 points to be second place at 24.59 percent. Chrome grew 0.6 points to 6.73 percent. Apple’s Safari grew slightly 0.06 points to 4.72 percent – probably mostly due to new Mac users, and Opera fell 0.07 points to 2.30 percent.

Before people see that this is the end of Internet Explorer, one interesting note is that Microsoft's browser showed the most growth overall throughout April. Internet Explorer 8 usage jumped 1.08 percent, nearly double that of the next closest runner. Of course, some of that has to be due to the growing acceptance of Windows 7.

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Top Comments
  • 17 Hide
    grillz9909 , May 5, 2010 1:43 AM
    25%? Guess I can't use FF anymore.. it's too popular!
  • 14 Hide
    znegval , May 5, 2010 12:47 AM
    babybelugaI hope this means that people are getting smarter!


    Hopefully, but I doubt all those 60% who use Internet Explorer do so because they evaluated each option and chosed to use it. You can say that about the other ones because it implies that they know there's life outside of Internet Explorer (which let's face it, many people just don't know).

    It's been very interesting to see Internet Explorer development as soon as some serious competition showed up. They actually started to add new features instead of relying 100% on the Windows dominance. A small reminder of what monopoly can do to a product, and how competition can bring it back to life.
  • 13 Hide
    babybeluga , May 5, 2010 12:34 AM
    I hope this means that people are getting smarter!
Other Comments
    Display all 49 comments.
  • 13 Hide
    babybeluga , May 5, 2010 12:34 AM
    I hope this means that people are getting smarter!
  • 14 Hide
    znegval , May 5, 2010 12:47 AM
    babybelugaI hope this means that people are getting smarter!


    Hopefully, but I doubt all those 60% who use Internet Explorer do so because they evaluated each option and chosed to use it. You can say that about the other ones because it implies that they know there's life outside of Internet Explorer (which let's face it, many people just don't know).

    It's been very interesting to see Internet Explorer development as soon as some serious competition showed up. They actually started to add new features instead of relying 100% on the Windows dominance. A small reminder of what monopoly can do to a product, and how competition can bring it back to life.
  • 11 Hide
    duk3 , May 5, 2010 12:48 AM
    I can't wait until Microsoft has to actually compete for OS and browser market share to get those windows prices down.
    Competition is better for everyone, especially the consumer.
  • 0 Hide
    Franklin Hennersdorfer , May 5, 2010 12:49 AM
    IE8's the one that finally got me to leave. I stayed loyal since the day I switched away from old Netscape back in the Win95/98 days to IE, and would use it still if Microsoft hadn't introduced so many new bugs into IE8 that they REFUSE to develop fixes for. Anyone tried saving images or files in IE8 lately? It used to remember where you last saved a file as long as you had a browser open. Now, even a closing tab forces it to revert to the My Pictures or My Documents folders or the like, and Microsoft simply refuses to fix it. It's one of many things costing them users.
  • 1 Hide
    Marco925 , May 5, 2010 1:22 AM
    YAY!

    Let's hope Firefox gains!

    but alas... IE was the reason why i made so much money formatting computers.
  • -6 Hide
    djtronika , May 5, 2010 1:31 AM
    personally i am very excited about IE9's massive GPU capabilities. go check out the test drive demo now. i'd be interested to see your comments after you play with it.
  • 17 Hide
    grillz9909 , May 5, 2010 1:43 AM
    25%? Guess I can't use FF anymore.. it's too popular!
  • -4 Hide
    manitoublack , May 5, 2010 1:54 AM
    Where's Seamonkey or Opera :( 
  • 0 Hide
    buwish , May 5, 2010 1:56 AM
    I'm somewhat "excited" for the release of IE9 with the added benefit of GPU usage during browsing.
  • 3 Hide
    yay , May 5, 2010 1:58 AM
    Chromes's latest beta can render webpages at 2500fps (they didn't mention hardware on the Facebook post), apparently at that speed you get artifacts, i thought it was interesting.
  • 0 Hide
    zoemayne , May 5, 2010 2:03 AM
    safari isnt optimized for windows use soon it'll be slower than IE and apple prob doesnt care.
  • 2 Hide
    brendano257 , May 5, 2010 2:07 AM
    "Internet Explorer Market Share at 10-Yr Low Point," Consumer Intelligence at an all time high.
  • 1 Hide
    landerx74 , May 5, 2010 3:11 AM
    I really wish MS would release updates and performance improvements as fast as they do for Chrome and Firefox. They need to move quicker. IE 9 is promising but how long until we get it?
  • -5 Hide
    mouettus , May 5, 2010 3:22 AM
    ppl are being anal with the performance. I mean... we all have fast PCs. bottleneck is the network connection (internet). I've tried them all on 3 different OSes and can't see turd as far as performance goes.

    I'm using my computer on a 46in tv... so I HAVE to use the magnify tool. IE is the only one looking good out of the bunch when zoomed 150%.

    Startup too is very fast on my 4yrs old pc...


    Those are the reasons why I use IE. Other than that, it's a UI preference thing.
  • 0 Hide
    pjmelect , May 5, 2010 3:50 AM
    I think that feature wise Internet explorer 8 is better than Firefox, however Internet explore 8 has a number of bad bugs such as dead tabs, getting stuck and not displaying on sites with imbedded adverts (such as Toms hardware). Firefox has its share of bugs as well but they don’t affect the usability of the browser so much.
  • 1 Hide
    climber , May 5, 2010 4:22 AM
    I've see other opinion poles on other sites (large news sites) where their pole of the day has/had Chrome at 10%. Chrome's OS could really change the dominance of at least the developer install base. A lot of developers I know where I work want Open Standards everything and can't stand the things MS does to create their own standard and force it on everyone else, (i.e. - IE back in the 90's early 2000's and their lack of W3C conformity). I personally want a fast browser which doesn't require monolithic hardware to be fast, but will scale very well with hardware when the content rendering can be sped up with the right hardware.
  • 0 Hide
    stm1185 , May 5, 2010 4:41 AM
    Have not used IE in 10 yrs too I bet! No thats not correct, I am using Chrome with IE tab, so I technically use IE from time to time. Nuts.

    IE is just not as nice of a package as FF or Chrome; still use it over that POS Opera though!
  • -9 Hide
    drowned , May 5, 2010 5:05 AM
    Burn baby, burn!

    PS - "I think that feature wise Internet explorer 8 is better than Firefox" GTFO noob. It's called addons.
  • 2 Hide
    bison88 , May 5, 2010 5:36 AM
    Go Opera! :D  Unfortunately it doesn't load Docs.com for me and halts on some sites forcing me to manually stop the loading and reloading every time I click links but only on a few sites. Minor tweaks but the most solid browser on the market IMO.
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