Firefox's 'retreat' ensures Microsoft excels

Contractor UK ^ | Aug 22, 2005 | Contractor UK

[Bush2000]

Firefox's 'retreat' ensures Microsoft excels

Open source web browser Firefox has lost the momentum it has steadily gained since it was unleashed last year, according to Web analysts at Net Applications.

The online portal’s unique Hit List service reveals a slump in the Mozilla browser’s market share, falling from 8.7% to 8.1 % in July.

Coinciding with its demise, was the advance of Microsoft's IE that has gained some of the ground surrendered in June, climbing back from 86.6 % to 87.2% last month.

The revival for the dominant browser comes on the back of average monthly losses of between .5 to 1% for Redmond, as Firefox started to gain acceptance among a wider audience than just tech-savvy users.

When asked by Contractor UK whether Microsoft’s sudden gains were from the unveiling of a new IE, Net Applications said a re-launch tends revive industry interest, and could have bolstered Microsoft’s market share of the browser market.

When a company launches a new product, there is always renewed interest in what the company has produced and it would also be fair to say that this may have had an effect, said a member of the Hit List team.

Although, there have been browser issues with Windows 2000 in the news, so it is possible that again you may see a dip [in Microsoft’s market share]. Right now, people are looking for security and whenever there are issues with the security of one's system, they will use what they feel will be the most secure.”

Besides Net Applications, web developer site W3 Schools, confirms that adoption of Firefox is falling, just as IE is reaching its highest share of the market in 2005.

According to W3's data on specialist users, Microsoft IE (6) enjoyed a 67.9% share in July, improving to 68.1% in August matched against Firefox’s top share of 21% in May, which has now dropped to 19.8% for the last two months.

Observers noted that both sets of analysis concur that Microsoft’s loss, up until now, has been Firefox’s gain, but over the last month roles have reversed.

Security fears concerning Mozilla and its browser product have recently emerged, coinciding with Microsoft’s high-profile trumpeting of its new safer browser product (IE 7), complete with glossy logo.

Experts at Net Applications said they were surprised at Firefox’s sudden retreat, saying they expected a slow down before any decline.

Yet they told CUK: “Whenever there may be problems with security, there always is a decline with users changing browsers.”

Data from the Web analytics company is based on 40,000 users, gleaned from their global internet operations, prompting some commentators to question the so-called ‘global decline’ in the Firefox market share.

The Counter.com reportedly finds that between June and July, Firefox actually increased its share by two points, and overtook IE5 for the first time ever.

The Web Standard Project suggests webmasters should treat data from web analysis providers with caution, before rushing to make service changes.

So what can we conclude?” asks the WSP, a grass roots project fighting for open access to web technologies.

“Not much: Mozilla-based browsers are probably used by just under 10% of the web audience and their share is growing slowly. IE5.x is probably used by somewhat less than that and its share is declining slowly. IE6 is roughly holding steady.”

Meanwhile, Spread Firefox, which measures actual download rates of the browser, reports that it took just one month for the Mozilla Foundation’s showpiece to reach 80 million downloads in August – from its July total of 70 million.

At the time of writing, Firefox had been downloaded 80701444 times, meaning adoption rates of over 10m occurred one month after Net Applications says Firefox bolted in light of the dominant IE.

[blowfish]

But Internet explorer is just plain better and faster than the various forms that Netscape has morphed into.

Ha. Haha. Bwahahaha...Oh man you're killing me! Haha. ha.
Oh my god, I think you might be serious....

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

IE blows and swallows. I use Firefox and I absolutely love it.

[Golden Eagle]

Wow, what incredibly "innovative" technology they have... /SARCASM

Damn that WAS sarcastic. Hilarious the cloners are now working on a copy of .NET, gonna laugh my ass when they get hit with patent suits.

[Bush2000]

Well, if you're going on the basis of rendering speed, then you probably want to go with Opera or IE.

Windows speed chart

Browser name	Cold start	Warm start	Rendering CSS	Rendering table	Script speed	Multiple images	History
Avant 1.1	10.09	2.90	1.31	1.38	32	2.74	43
Clue 4.2	5.80	3.17	-	-	-	20.49	-
Escape 4.82	9.75	6.88	5.07	2.67	391	3.83	194
Escape 5.1.4	15.94	11.03	3.71	3.04	354	3.54	153
Firefox 1.0	11.54	2.52	1.81	1.48	23	2.05	41
Firefox 1.0 (Moox)	20.33	2.78	3.18	1.57	26	2.84	41
ICEbrowser 6	15.44	7.10	1.84	1.08	139	2.30	131
Internet Explorer 5.0	5.25	3.11	0.81	1.08	31	2.25	34
Internet Explorer 6.0	6.99	1.77	1.32	1.33	60	2.32	32
Internet Explorer 7.0 (b1)	6.19	2.44	1.58	1.28	40	2.32	34
K-Meleon 0.8.2	5.92	2.67	2.81	1.73	-	2.60	40
Maxthon 1.1	11.09	3.24	1.36	1.60	63	2.70	32
Mozilla 1.0	9.54	2.81	21.80	1.46	95	2.04	58
Mozilla 1.8	11.94	2.48	1.49	1.39	23	2.00	40
NetFront 3.2	9.19	8.32	2.42	7.47	65	7.71	233
Netscape 4.77	9.33	1.84	16.60	2.34	80	2.08	38
Netscape 0.5.6 (Br)	24.67	13.54	1.43	1.77	29	2.34	55
Opera 6.03	3.74	1.66	0.75	0.72	64	2.94	15
Opera 7.54	4.90	2.40	0.86	1.19	19	1.87	21
Opera 8.0	3.66	2.38	0.92	1.17	13	1.78	15
WebTV Viewer 2.8	7.34	5.04	13.24	5.58	41	5.84	154

[Myrddin]

I have XP SP2 on my company laptop. All of the hardware that I own is Windows 2000 with all the latest patches applied. The "activation" process of XP is annoying. I purchased two copies of XP Home to service the computers that my kids use. My youngest son loads alls sorts of games on his machine. That trashes the OS fairly frequently. Now we have to waste time on the phone getting "activated" each time it happens again. The Windows 2000 machines are rock solid, trouble free. No games. Lots of software development in C/C++/C# and Java.

[kevao]

Demise was perhaps a bit strong. But it portends a foul wind for the FireFox advocates, who had expected FireFox to take away significant market share from IE (and thus tip Web standards)...

Yeah, just a bit. Call me a throwback, but words used to mean things. If/when Firefox's market share drops to 0%, what word is left to describe that? (Of course, that won't ever happen; I'm a fairly recent, and satisfied, convert and don't plan on going back to IE.)

[Hank Rearden]

Well, nobody except the >80% of the world's computer users.

No, that's not true. 99% of that 80% are totally ignorant of what they have, why they have it, whether it's any good and the fact that it attracts all that spyware and virii like flypaper. They just use whatever was on their desktop when they got their computer.

So they sure as hell won't care.

The only people who will care are the diehards who actually prefer IE for whatever reason.

i.e. Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer and maybe their wives. That's it.

[Petronski]

The sound you hear is me not caring...

You care so little, you took the time to post about how little you care.

[Psycho_Bunny]

I've used IE7 Beta on an XP machine.

I don't know if that means they'll be releasing a stand alone version but, I suspect they will, to compete with FireFox.

[Golden Eagle]

[Bush2000]

The "activation" process of XP is annoying...Now we have to waste time on the phone getting "activated" each time it happens again.

Uh, hold it a sec. Are you still using dial-up -- or are you saying that you need to call MS Support to activate? Because I've rebuilt a particular machine several dozen times and used the same activation key without having to call MS Support. Never had an issue getting rejected for activation.

[Bush2000]

You care so little, you took the time to post about how little you care.

Yeah, with my speedy connection, it cost me a few seconds. Oh, the inconvenience...

[Hank Rearden]

So now we're commies if we use something far superior to that virus-transportation-system piece of crap from MS?

Well, let me just say this about that: We will bury you.

[Bush2000]

99% of that 80% are totally ignorant of what they have, why they have it, whether it's any good and the fact that it attracts all that spyware and virii like flypaper. They just use whatever was on their desktop when they got their computer.

You claim to know 99% of the 80% ?!? Dude, you're hilarious. Keep the comedy coming...

[Psycho_Bunny]

This thread certainly brought out a few people who think they know what they're talking about.

Simple fact of the matter is that if someone told me they got a virus using IE, I wouldn't hire them to work on my network because they've defined themselves as an enthusiast, not a professional.

[js1138]

Because I've rebuilt a particular machine several dozen times and used the same activation key without having to call MS Support. Never had an issue getting rejected for activation.

I haven't hit the several dozen mark yet, but I've reactivated a bunch of XP installations with no phone call.

The only time I had to phone in was when I moved a license from one machine to another. They accepted my situation without question.

[Golden Eagle]

Chose your side, and live with it.

[Golden Eagle]

CHOOSE! Damn that bunny, got me mixed up when he did it first.

[N3WBI3]

Hes being awefully quiet on that one..

[an amused spectator]

IE *is* the Web standard.

Many adhered to the "flat earth" standard for decades. IE juat sucks.