According to the latest number from Net Applications, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) leads the chart in terms of browser usage both for US and international users. Firefox and Chrome follow on the chart respectively.
In the world of web browsers, market share fluctuation is one of the constant factors that browser makers face. As a browser maker, it is either your browser’s total market share that grows, shrinks, or oscillates. For Internet Explorer 9, Microsoft’s web browser, the trend has seen constant growth particularly on Windows 7.
According to the latest stats from Net Applications, the web analytic firm that surveys browser share, Internet Explorer 9 has seen the most growth in terms of market share usage. In fact, this has been the case since Microsoft released IE9 to the market.
At the end of the month of February, IE9 has reached 40% of browser share on Windows 7 for US users. This represents the most in terms of market share way ahead of Chrome 17 and Firefox. Based on the numbers, Firefox, with 16.8%, is the second most used browser on Windows 7, and Chrome, Google’s web browser, has the least market share with only 12.5%.
Internationally, the figure is similar in terms of most browser share users on Windows 7. IE9 still leads the chart with 30.1%, with Firefox coming in second place with 21.9% and Chrome 17 with the least amount of percentage at 18.9%.
What is particular interesting with the number is the fact that IE9 is only available on Windows 7 and its predecessor, the hated Windows Vista, whereas both Chrome and Firefox are available on XP. Microsoft and the IE team, as they explained, did not release IE9 on Windows XP because the hardware graphic technology available with IE9 would not work on windows XP.
On the official Internet Explorer blog, Roger Caprioti, director of the Internet Explorer Marketing group talks about the constant growth of IE9 as the “great news for consumer and developers alike who benefit from the richer web experiences and standards support in IE9 – experiences and supports that will continue to get better and better as we introduces IE10.”
Further reading: Internet Explorer, Microsoft
