Posted on 08/26/2005 6:31:03 PM PDT by 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.
Gotta love competition. Now the Mozilla folks won't get complacent.
# Support for XPSP2 and newer versions of Windows, including Longhorn, of course (sorry, no Win2K support)
Except for those on less than XP apparently, they don't have to worry about IE getting better. So if you're using 2K you have to buy a whole new OS you may not want if you want the newer IE.
Competition is a wonderful thing. Without Firefox there would be no IE7.
It has that old-fashioned sense of marxist urgency.
They need one that says: "MOZILLA: The Perfect Tool of the New Soviet Man"
Or how about "Firefox: The Ideal Product of the October Revolution"
You mean keep writing a browser that supports the current Web standards, made by the W3C, of which Microsoft is a member. Microsoft admits IE's CSS incompatibility is a deficiency, and therefore recognizes, although doesn't implement, Web standards.
Keep dredging up an old party poster again, done in a recognized tongue-in-cheek graphics style.
You came close to the point but missed it. The Chinese sunk a lot of money into their version of Linux, and YOU can download it for free, taking advantage of all the work THEY did.
It does, but it's not a common production configuration.
BTW, expect IE share to dip and Opera share to increase soon. As shipped, Opera has for a long time automatically identified itself as IE to get around pages that detect for and display to only IE (as Microsoft tried to pull a fast one a while back). Thus, millions of Opera users record as IE at Web sites.
Opera has recently announced that it will ship identifying itself as Opera from now on.
You never replied to my post reminding you of exactly how those vulnerabilities are composed, such as most for IE being serious, and many not being fixed.
IE is free software.
IIS comes free with XP Pro.
All this "software is communism" crap is ludicrous.
"Did I mention that IE blows?"
I strongly disagree. IE sucks!
I find that Firefox loads faster then Mozilla, and I never use IE if I can help it.
An excellent post. I am especially impressed with the sections you highlighted.
Your check is in the mail.
Sincerely,
Bill Gates
I can't stop laughing either. Microsoft's groupies are so comical.
FYI Chinese Red Flag is based on Red Hat.
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=%22red+flag%22+%22based+on+red+hat%22&fr=FP-tab-web-t&toggle=1&cop=&ei=UTF-8
According to this article, China may now even take the name "Red Hat" as well.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1471825/posts
Just fine with you guys I'm sure.
You have to buy the operating system first. Or I should say, TO BE LEGAL you have to buy the operating system first. Still confused?
For me its about keeping th eclutter down..
Sure does, funny watching these guys try to deny it.
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