Seeing as this is start of a new month and important things are happening in the near future, we thought it would be a good time to take a look back and see how Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is doing.
Taking a look at the data gathered by Net Applications we see that Internet Explorer is still in the lead when it comes to browsers. As a whole Microsoft’s product accounts for almost 60% of the market. It’s been hovering around this spot for a really long time now.
Chrome, which is IE’s main rival has been expanding its reach and has grown to 21% up from 19% just a month earlier. That growth has mainly been at the expense of Firefox, which now accounts for only 14%, down from around 20% a year earlier. Finally, Safari is holding steady at the 5% mark while other browsers are also slowly declining in usage.
Now coming back to Internet Explorer it’s interesting to note how different versions of the browser factor into the data. IE 8, which is the default browser in Windows 7, has slowly gained users and now accounts for over 22% of the market.
While this is mostly likely due to the increased adoption of Windows 7, the data does show that newer versions of the browser, such as 10 and 11 have seen a slight decline in numbers. IE 11, the current browser version only accounts for 17%.
The numbers aren’t exactly in Microsoft’s favor as it would obviously prefer it if most people were using the most current and secure version of its products.
With Internet Explorer 12 coming as part of Windows 10, Microsoft may soon find itself in a familiar situation where it’s desperately trying to get its users to upgrade and abandon an old and deprecated piece of software.
Source and Charts: Net Applications via: Winbeta