Microsoft's new browser, Internet Explorer 9 (IE9), accounted for 3.6 percent of Web browsing in March, according to browser market share numbers released early on Friday by Internet analytics firm Net Applications.
This significantly trailed more established browsers like Microsoft's own IE8, with 51.2 percent, Firefox 3.6, with 19.5 percent, and Google Chrome, with 15.2 percent. But on Windows 7, IE9 was still ahead of the other major new browser release last month—Firefox 4, which saw 2.8 percent usage share. But IE9 only runs on Windows 7 and Vista, while competitors Firefox and Chrome still support the more popular but aging version, XP, which still claims 54 percent global usage, according to Net Applications.
Worldwide browser market share on all operating systems showed IE in all versions continuing its decline, from 56.77 percent in February to 55.92 percent in March. Over the same period, Firefox rose slightly from 21.74 percent to 21.80 percent, and Chrome made the most significant move of the three, increasing from 10.93 percent to 11.57 percent.
In the U.S. alone, however, the picture is different: across all versions, Internet Explorer gained 0.19 percent for a 72.44 percent share, while Chrome and Firefox declined by 0.10 percent and 0.08 percent, respectively.
Microsoft's new browser, Internet Explorer 9 (IE9), accounted for 3.6 percent of Web browsing in March, according to browser market share numbers released early on Friday by Internet analytics firm Net Applications.
This significantly trailed more established browsers like Microsoft's own IE8, with 51.2 percent, Firefox 3.6, with 19.5 percent, and Google Chrome, with 15.2 percent. But on Windows 7, IE9 was still ahead of the other major new browser release last month—Firefox 4, which saw 2.8 percent usage share. But IE9 only runs on Windows 7 and Vista, while competitors Firefox and Chrome still support the more popular but aging version, XP, which still claims 54 percent global usage, according to Net Applications.
Worldwide browser market share on all operating systems showed IE in all versions continuing its decline, from 56.77 percent in February to 55.92 percent in March. Over the same period, Firefox rose slightly from 21.74 percent to 21.80 percent, and Chrome made the most significant move of the three, increasing from 10.93 percent to 11.57 percent.
In the U.S. alone, however, the picture is different: across all versions, Internet Explorer gained 0.19 percent for a 72.44 percent share, while Chrome and Firefox declined by 0.10 percent and 0.08 percent, respectively.
Firefox 4 claimed more than double the download rate for IE9 on the first day of its availability at 7 million downloads, compared with IE9's 2.3 million. But neither release has yet to have a significant effect on the overall browser market shares.
Both IE9 and Firefox 4 have yet to become default updates for their users. Just three days ago, Microsoft turned on Windows Update for pre-release beta and RC installations of IE9, and according to a post on the Exploring IE blog today, 90 percent of downloads since the release have come from new users who didn't install prerelease software, and a quarter of those came from Chrome and Firefox users. "The adoption rate of IE9 is about five times higher then what we saw for Internet Explorer 8 in the same time frame," Microsoft said.
A previous post on the IE blog noted that "Internet Explorer 9 will not be broadly rolled out on Windows Update until the end of June." For comparison, Firefox 4 is available to users of the previous version, 3.6, via a manual update check, but in the coming weeks they'll see an automatic message prompting the upgrade.
PCMag.com spoke with the post's author, Ryan Gavin, Microsoft's senior director of IE business and marketing, in a phone interview yesterday. Gavin's major point was that in order for the Web to move forward, the browser and operating system can't be thought of as separate things—an odd approach, considering antitrust actions against Microsoft like the European browser ballot. The message seems to be that, yes, you can install any browser on a Windows PC, but only IE9 is purpose-built for that OS, while others have to spread out their development efforts to multiple platforms.
"A lot of interesting conversation is going on with respect to browsers these days. There are two simple worldviews: There's spreadsheet and pie chart ogling, and trying to divine some outcome or insight from that," Gavin said. "Second are the conversations with developers, people who build Web sites, and customers on 'how does the Web push forward, and truly become as rich and fast and immersive as a native application?' We made a deliberate bet with IE9, taking advantage of Windows 7 and the hardware."
IE9 makes use of that operating system's version of DirectX to accelerate many browser functions.
Mozilla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This significantly trailed more established browsers like Microsoft's own IE8, with 51.2 percent, Firefox 3.6, with 19.5 percent, and Google Chrome, with 15.2 percent. But on Windows 7, IE9 was still ahead of the other major new browser release last month—Firefox 4, which saw 2.8 percent usage share. But IE9 only runs on Windows 7 and Vista, while competitors Firefox and Chrome still support the more popular but aging version, XP, which still claims 54 percent global usage, according to Net Applications.
Worldwide browser market share on all operating systems showed IE in all versions continuing its decline, from 56.77 percent in February to 55.92 percent in March. Over the same period, Firefox rose slightly from 21.74 percent to 21.80 percent, and Chrome made the most significant move of the three, increasing from 10.93 percent to 11.57 percent.
In the U.S. alone, however, the picture is different: across all versions, Internet Explorer gained 0.19 percent for a 72.44 percent share, while Chrome and Firefox declined by 0.10 percent and 0.08 percent, respectively.
Firefox 4 claimed more than double the download rate for IE9 on the first day of its availability at 7 million downloads, compared with IE9's 2.3 million. But neither release has yet to have a significant effect on the overall browser market shares.
Both IE9 and Firefox 4 have yet to become default updates for their users. Just three days ago, Microsoft turned on Windows Update for pre-release beta and RC installations of IE9, and according to a post on the Exploring IE blog today, 90 percent of downloads since the release have come from new users who didn't install prerelease software, and a quarter of those came from Chrome and Firefox users. "The adoption rate of IE9 is about five times higher then what we saw for Internet Explorer 8 in the same time frame," Microsoft said.
A previous post on the IE blog noted that "Internet Explorer 9 will not be broadly rolled out on Windows Update until the end of June." For comparison, Firefox 4 is available to users of the previous version, 3.6, via a manual update check, but in the coming weeks they'll see an automatic message prompting the upgrade.
PCMag.com spoke with the post's author, Ryan Gavin, Microsoft's senior director of IE business and marketing, in a phone interview yesterday. Gavin's major point was that in order for the Web to move forward, the browser and operating system can't be thought of as separate things—an odd approach, considering antitrust actions against Microsoft like the European browser ballot. The message seems to be that, yes, you can install any browser on a Windows PC, but only IE9 is purpose-built for that OS, while others have to spread out their development efforts to multiple platforms.
"A lot of interesting conversation is going on with respect to browsers these days. There are two simple worldviews: There's spreadsheet and pie chart ogling, and trying to divine some outcome or insight from that," Gavin said. "Second are the conversations with developers, people who build Web sites, and customers on 'how does the Web push forward, and truly become as rich and fast and immersive as a native application?' We made a deliberate bet with IE9, taking advantage of Windows 7 and the hardware."
IE9 makes use of that operating system's version of DirectX to accelerate many browser functions.
Mozilla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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