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.
The biggest advantage I see is that you don't have multiple browser processes running. I can browse to multiple sites (I actually have three home pages), without burning up system resources.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding here, but the way I read it, you're telling me all Firefox users are commie sympathizers? Get a grip. It's a freakin' BROWSER, for cryin' out loud. Wouldn't hurt MS any to have a little competition, before they cannibalize and then crush them.
I can't remember the poster who said it, but like them...I use Firefox, I like it, but I don't expect to see it steal any significant market share from MSIE...at least not anytime soon.
Yup, it's all about performance, quality, etc, and how a browser performs to my standards. I'm no brand-junkie. :)
That's something like 7% of its share though. If you are a software operation looking for market penetration, a loss of 7% of your market share is a big hit, especially if you were gaining share regularly prior to the loss.
Too funny!!! Could you put a pic with this of Kruschev banging his shoe on the table?
Well, duh. They're not gonna run very well on any other platform, are they?
But the products are free. I believe you can download the latest IE from a Micr'soft web site.
Son? I'm 49. If you're 75 or older then that form of address is appropriate. I have 10 Windows boxes, 6 QNX boxes, 5 Linux (Fedora, Debian and Slackware) boxes and an HP5555 PDA for WinCE development around here. The only troublesome box in the house belongs to my youngest son. It is HIS misbehavior with HIS computer that is the root of the problem. He did in fact upgrade his motherboard to a 3 GHz P4 HT processor, so a new motherboard was an element of the problem. He is constantly installing the latest high performance, networked gaming software. Always on the bleeding edge of disaster. Most of the computers in the house are used for software development and run rock solid.
I've been a software developer since 1980. The only time I've experienced a problem with Windows was when I installed an early beta of NT4.0. I had to wipe it off the disk when the retail release hit the shelf as the beta was intentionally configured to not be upgradable to the retail release. No big deal. The usual load, patch, reboot ritual.
Hmmmm....I just opened 11 tabs in IE. If you want to know how, let me know. If you're just trolling don't bother.
Translation: When someone that doesn't know anything on making a profit or trying to reduce costs gets to choose--they chose Apache. When the people that are educated on how to figure out the best value for their business and get a return on investment makes the decision--they choose windows.
Thank you for stating the obvious flashbunny. And now we know why Windows is #1.
If you want to experience tabs on IE now, download the MSN toolbar. It also comes with a killer desktop search engine.
Although, I'm not a big fan on tabs. I end up opening more IE windows. I do see where some people would prefer tabs, I'm just an old dog that can't learn new tricks I guess.
That's old data. The gecko rendering engine was kinda pokey a year ago, now it's comparable.
It's misguided thinking. Same as the old "What's good for GM is good for America" during the 60s and 70s. Problem is, that kind of thinking gets you into trouble. Competition is good. Look what the Mozilla Foundation has done for Microsoft: forced it to update a product that they hadn't put anything into for years. Would you rather that Microsoft went the way of GM?
Incidentally, BSD Unix was a product of ARPA/DARPA funding and DOD ideas. Hard to get more American than that.
Not lately, I'll have to go check the newer ones out. Thanks.
You've FYI'd us about a hundred times, so I think we remember. But as I told Bush, they put money into it and re-released it, so go ahead and download and take advantage of China's IP "giveaway." With OSS, it goes both ways.
The Microsofties here believe it's all about the OSS crowd stealing our precious fluids.
Sorry the about arcane, but absolutely apt, movie reference
In the words of Willy Wonka, "Wait a minute. Strike that. Reverse it."
IIS 6 finally got some of the capabilities of Apache (like application pools, very useful when you're running many applications on the same server), and the IIS coming with Vista will get some more (like modularity, also very useful). Yeah, IIS is better when it's still playing catch-up.
When you say "better" it's all relative. In terms of overall support and cost, yes it is better and that's why teh suits choose it over Apache.
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