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Press Clippings
   
Browser Wars: Who's Winning, Who's Losing
by
Rob McGann
February 21, 2005
Adoption of
Mozilla's Firefox
browser has accelerated to make it the number two browser in North
America, with just under a 4.5 percent market share, according to the
"First Quarter 2005 Browser Market Share Study" by
Janco Associates.
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Click on graphic to view FoxFire growth trend |
As recently as July 2004, Firefox had less than 1 percent market share.
Since the browser went out of beta in November, it's been
rapidly adopted, sneaking past some of the top browsers of years
past. Firefox is officially a "major" Web browser, says M. Victor
Janulaitis, Janco's chief executive.
"If you include Apple and Linux, then
Mozilla has more market share than all other browsers combined, except
for Microsoft," Janulaitis observes in the study. "This is a shift.
Users are beginning to see an alternative to Microsoft and are willing
to try it."
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Click here to view browser quarterly trend
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According to the data, Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) maintains
its preeminence among North American browsers, with a combined 84.85
percent market share. Firefox comes in second with a 4.48 percent stake,
followed by Netscape (3.03 percent); AOL (2.20 percent); MSN (0.58
percent); and the still-obscure Opera (0.34 percent).
The study tabulated statistics for North
American Web sites, excluding sexually explicit destinations, through
January 31, 2005. Janco publishes its browser market share report on a
semi-annual basis.
According to
Rafael Ebron, a Mozilla spokesperson, Firefox's penetration into various
sectors of the digerati, or early-adopting members of the Internet
elite, is even more widespread.
"Among traffic leading news sites, we estimate that Firefox has an
approximate penetration of 11 percent," Ebron said. "Throughout the
blogger community, it's perhaps as high as 35 percent."
Other key findings and conclusions of the study include:
- Netscape and AOL have a combined
browser market share of just over 5 percent, and that percentage
is declining.
- IE's market share has declined
in the last 12 months.
- Virus attacks have prompted many
to use automatic update features to get the latest versions of
IE and alternatives to IE.
- Users are staying current,
downloading the latest versions of IE and Netscape.
- A significant number of users
are looking to solutions other than Microsoft, a sign Firefox
stands to gain even more market share.
Not all analysts see the same rosy
picture for Firefox on the horizon. According to a recent study by
Gartner, if
and when Microsoft chooses to respond to the threat posed by Mozilla's
new browser, it will probably easily regain any market share it lost in
recent months. Firefox's recent, impressive growth is consequently "not
inherently sustainable," the report concludes.
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