The Internet Explorer 9 Beta has been the talk of the Internet, promising strong performance, fast rendering speeds and, best of all, HTML5 support.
The IE team reports that Internet Explorer 9 Beta reached the 23 million downloads milestone, with over 0.5% of users worldwide. While the browser is still in beta and nearing its RC (Release Candidate) milestone, more users will jump on the bandwagon, growing the browser"s market share even more. The IE team reports that on Windows 7, Internet Explorer 9 Beta accounts for 1.82% of all users worldwide. Windows XP, still the most dominant operating system, is not compatible with IE9.
Apart from the success of IE9 Beta, its predecessor, IE8, continues its growth, according to Net Applications. Internet Explorer 8 saw a 1.18% growth in January, over one and a half times the growth of Chrome (0.72%). Internet Explorer still remains the top browser in the world, with over 34.79% market share.
Internet Explorer 6 continues its slow and steady death, with a loss of 1.77% in January. Once the top dog in the browser wars, the aging browser continues to lose market share as many users switch from Windows XP to Vista or Windows 7. IE6 now sits as the third most popular browser, behind Firefox 3.6 and ahead of Chrome 8.0.
Download the Internet Explorer 9 Beta here.