Numbers Talk: Internet Explorer Will Cease To Be The Most Popular Browser Before December 2005. Start Planning.

In about 6 months Microsoft Internet Explorer has lost nearly 10% of its market share due to security issues and availability of better features and tools inside competing browsers (Opera, Mozilla, Netscape).

At this same speed (pessimistic view, as IE loss of market share has dramatically sped up since June), by December 2005 and before Longhorn will be out, Microsoft Internet Explorer may very likely not be anymore the most popular Internet browser as well as the standards-setter for many applications and tools that work over the Internet (games, collaboration and conferencing tools, communication software, etc.).

Something to really reflect upon, for all the implications that come with it. Though this is hardly breaking news, it is now the ninth consecutive month in which Microsoft Internet Explorer has been loosing ground to its valid and open-source-based competitors.

Though there has been of late much press around the security and vulnerability issues of IE, I have not been able to see much hard data on the actual market share trends that Internet Explorer still commands. Where I did see some of this info, it was too much US-flavoured and based on statistics that were not really what one would define as international.

I think it is time for me to share some real data coming from my servers and reflecting a strong non US-based identity, serving a large international community of English-speaking readers from over 100 countries in the world. Please note that over 50% of my visitors/readers do not come from the US or North America.
Here are the hard facts (market share percentages of Microsoft and non-Microsft browsers):

December

Microsoft: 90.23

Other browsers: 9.77



January 2004

Microsoft: 89.37

Other browsers: 10.63



February

Microsoft: 89.19

Other browsers: 10.81



March

Microsoft: 88.21

Other browsers: 11.79



April

Microsoft: 86.91

Other browsers: 13.09



May

Microsoft: 86.27

Other browsers: 13.73



June

Microsoft: 84.72

Other browsers: 15.28



July 2004

Microsoft: 81.19

Other browsers: 18.81




Market share percentages of Microsoft and non-Microsft browsers on MasterNewMedia.org - Traffic sample size: 300,000 unique visitors - Source: HitBox Professional live tracking system - WebSideStory