Browser wars
It will surely surprise no-one to learn that Internet Explorer's share of the browser market is continuing its downward trend. Thanks to the continued increase in Chrome and Safari users (the latter's position no doubt helped by its being installed on iPhones, iPads and iPod touches) IE is continuing to slowly lose its dominance.
Research reported by NetMarketShare attributes Internet Explorer with 55.3 per cent of the browser market, followed by Firefox with 21.9 per cent, Chrome with 11.8 per cent and Safari with 6.9 - Opera trails way at the rear with a less than two per cent market share. Compared to last year that's a 4.7 per cent drop for Microsoft's browser, and a 1.7 per cent drop for Mozilla's, the difference going to Chrome and Safari, which rose by 1.8 per cent and 4.5 per cent respectively.
Internet Explorer's market share has been dropping steadily over the past several years, in no small part as a result of Microsoft's historical poor support for modern web standards in its browsers, driving web users to the competition. Chrome and Safari's rise is similarly unsurprising; Safari is the standard browser for Macs and iOS devices, giving it the same advantage as Microsoft can leverage on Windows.
Chrome, meanwhile, has long enjoyed a reputation as the fastest, most lightweight browser available, despite offering a decent level of extensibility - which also explains the drop for Firefox, which before the release of the recent updated versions was growing bloated and resource-hungry.
It's only to be expected that the current tends will continue into the next year. Even if the advances Microsoft is making with Internet Explorer 10 keep customers loyal on Window, it's unlikely that the company can do anything to stave of the increasing trend to wards mobile Internet use, and the ever-increasing dominance of Safari and Google's Android browser in that space.
