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Google Chrome steals usage share from IE/Firefox, Win 7 breaks 10%

By | February 1, 2010, 5:39am PST

Summary: Net Applications’ data for January is out, and there are some interesting trends displayed. First, the data shows that Google’s Chrome browser has managed to snatch usage share from Internet Explorer and Firefox. Here’s the data: Chrome: 5.20% (up from 4.64% in Dec ‘09) IE: 62.18% (down from 62.69% in Dec ‘09) Firefox: 24.41% (down from 24.61% in Dec ‘09) Note: While we [...]

Net Applications’ data for January is out, and there are some interesting trends displayed.

First, the data shows that Google’s Chrome browser has managed to snatch usage share from Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Here’s the data:

  • Chrome: 5.20% (up from 4.64% in Dec ‘09)
  • IE: 62.18% (down from 62.69% in Dec ‘09)
  • Firefox: 24.41% (down from 24.61% in Dec ‘09)

Note: While we may debate as to whether Net Applications is a reliable metric or not, Mozilla both accept and use its data in its PR propaganda. 

Note that this is the second month in a row that Net Applications has shown a decline in Firefox usage.

I noticed over the holiday period that Google was aggressively pushing Chrome through ads, even going as far as to offer customized downloads that could be sent as gifts via email.

The top browser spot has also changed hands, now belonging to IE8, with 22.31%, beating IE6 (20.07%). Still far too many people browsing the web with IE6 … UPGRADE PEOPLE!!!!!

In other news, Windows 7 global usage share hit 10% on January 31st. Overall, Windows 7 ended January with a 7.51% usage share (leaping ahead from 5.71% for Dec ‘09). Also interesting is the data that shows that Redmond WA, home of Microsoft, shows the highest Windows 7 usage share within the US, a robust 42%.

Overall, Windows usage is down to 92.02% (from 92.21% in Dec ‘09 - even strong Windows 7 gains can’t halt the slow erosion of Windows’ usage share), Mac is up to 5.13% (from 5.11% in Dec ‘09), which I admit probably isn’t significant, and Linux is unchanged at 1.02%. iPhone OS platform is also up marginally to 0.47% (up from 0.44% in Dec ‘09).

Net Applications measures operating system usage by tracking computers that visit the 40,000 sites monitored for clients, which represents a pool of about 160 million unique visitors each month. This data is then weighted based on the estimated size of each country’s Internet population.

[UPDATE: Breaking down the numbers more, IE8 has a larger usage share than it seems initially:

Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.0: 22.31%
Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.0 - Compatibility Mode: 2.79%
Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.0 - Compatibility Mode - Maxthon Edition: 0.21%
Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.0 - Compatibility Mode - Tencent Traveler Edition: 0.10%
Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.0 - Compatibility Mode - TheWorld Edition: 0.09%
Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.0 - Maxthon Edition: 0.02%
Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.0 - Tencent Traveler Edition: 0.02%
Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.0 - TheWorld Edition: 0.02%
TOTAL 25.56%

More details here.]

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Topics

Google Inc., Mozilla Firefox, Usage, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Digital Equipment Corp., iPhone OS Platform, Microsoft Windows 7, Web Browsers, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Internet, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology.

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Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

All opinions expressed on Hardware 2.0 are those of Adrian Kingsley-Hughes. Every effort is made to ensure that the information posted is accurate. If you have any comments, queries or corrections, please contact Adrian via the email link here. Any possible conflicts of interest will be posted below. [Updated: February 23, 2010] - Adrian Kingsley-Hughes has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other actual/potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted so far on this blog.

Biography

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology -- whether that be by learning to program, building a PC from a pile of parts, or helping them get the most from their new MP3 player or digital camera.

Adrian has authored/co-authored technical books on a variety of topics, ranging from programming to building and maintaining PCs. His most recent books include "Build the Ultimate Custom PC", "Beginning Programming" and "The PC Doctor's Fix It Yourself Guide". He has also written training manuals that have been used by a number of Fortune 500 companies.

Adrian also runs a popular blog under the name The PC Doctor, where he covers a range of computer-related topics -- from security to repairing and upgrading.

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RE: Google Chrome steals usage share from IE/Firefox, Win 7 breaks 10%
ron@... 9th Mar 2011
Just for the record, when you see NetApplications statistics that list a "Maxthon Edition" of Internet Explorer, it's not Internet Explorer. It's Maxthon 1 or 2. (Maxthon 3 is list as an "edition" of Safari.) This sort of thing has led to a wide-spread myth that Maxthon is just some sort of skin draped over I.E. No way. Maxthon is a fully independently developed browser that I.E. should hope to be as good as (along with all the other browers).
It's as fast as Chrome, more powerful and versatile than Firefox without requiring all the DIY configuration. Check it out yourself.

Ron White
ron.white@maxthon.com
View in thread
0 Votes
+ -
Here we go with the squewed marketing statistics
D.T.Schmitz Updated - 1st Feb 2010
How much of that Windows 7 10% has actually been sold to customers outside of the channel Adrian?

And does anybody really understand Net Applications statistics?

They are gathering their usage data sample in an artificial 'closed loop' which distorts the statistics by default. It simply isn't a random sampling across 'the world'.

Two words for you Adi: bo gus
Yogi: Yo, no gi. Yo Yo Ma.

OK, so that was more than two.
0 Votes
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That's funny. No one complained
mdemuth 1st Feb 2010
or called it inaccurate when it showed FireFox usage increasing.
So the definition of 'accurate data' is one that supports your bias? How nice.
0 Votes
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WOW - good catch...nt
ItsTheBottomLine 1st Feb 2010
nt
  • Flagged
0 Votes
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And StatCounter says...
bandersnatch42vt 1st Feb 2010
...that Firefox has 31.35% market share in the US alone (Win 7 @ 11.12%). So who do you believe?
0 Votes
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Here we go again with DTS's diminishing customer base again.
John Zern Updated - 1st Feb 2010
You had the chance to push Ubunbtu on to your "clients" when XP was near the end, and Vista wasn't as great as it could have been, but now that the people you target for your income see something better in Windows 7 then they do in your Ubuntu solution, market numbers are "squewed".

Lean to deal with it, Dietrich.
0 Votes
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There are others
rasmasyean Updated - 1st Feb 2010
Net apps got popular because they've been arround and update regularly for a while. Look at the OS Marketshare article in wikipedia for a list of others.

But anyway, much of those Windows 7 hits are prolly from pirated copies...as he says, that the marketshare in US is lower than "the world".

Also, off the top of my head, 10% is like maybe 150-200 million instalations (given 1.7 bil internet users). But Microsoft just announced that they sold 60 million liscenses, So even if Net app is right, that means that most of the installations are likely from China or somewhere.
0 Votes
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You are correct.
D.T.Schmitz 1st Feb 2010
Everything is "off the top of your head".

But, just talking it through helps you, right? wink

Does not change what I said.
0 Votes
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How do we know they are skewed?
Windows 7 man 1st Feb 2010
What is a better way?
0 Votes
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Does that mean
Cylon Centurion 1st Feb 2010
Linux has less market share too?

^0^
0 Votes
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Difficult to quantify
D.T.Schmitz 1st Feb 2010
I didn't say it would be easy to garner the information.

Something like Smolt, if installed on each discrete PC, could be used to garner more accurate tallys (vs User Agent string).

But that isn't realistically possible, at least not yet.
0 Votes
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ZDNet Hype Blogs
parkerjgpatton 1st Feb 2010
Skewed marketing statistics...skewed everything. I remember reading a ZDNet entry the same week that Google Chrome Beta launched, declaring it dead, a failure...etc. Flavor Flave should have his own ZDNet blog. Every once in a while, I am actually informed by something here. For the most part, it's just hype. The comments section is usually full of intellectual pride, confusion, emotional attachment to this or that software/OS/hardware/brand, drenched in flame sauce. I love it. It's the I.T. Jersey shore without the Gym, Tanning, and Laundry!
0 Votes
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How can you skew quoted numbers,
ItsTheBottomLine 1st Feb 2010
me thinks your reaching...
0 Votes
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Didn't you put these out thee last month for next year?
ItsTheBottomLine 1st Feb 2010
"Chrome OS WILL be the downfall of M$. Come this time next year I predict that the OS landscape will look something like this:

ChomeOS---40%
Windows---32%
Linux-----11%
AppleOSX--14%
Others-----3%
..."
I have a reminder on my calendar to check the numbers in January of 2011...
0 Votes
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If by "outside the channel" you mean
Pete "athynz" Athens 1st Feb 2010
direct sales of the OS vs buying it bundled with a new computer then there have been plenty of sales... hell everyone sold out of the 3-pack family upgrade versions that could upgrade 3 computers be they running Vista or XP 32 or 64 bit. And before you say anything note that BestBuy, Amazon, TigerDirect, and Microsoft were all selling the packs... and I was fortunate enough to get one prior to Microsoft ending that particular bundle.

As for the Net Applications data - that is the same data Mozilla uses when calculating Firefox usage so why is it applicable for Firefox to get usage data but not Microsoft? And please explain the "skewed by default" data...
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Net Applications: About Our Market Share Statistics
D.T.Schmitz Updated - 1st Feb 2010
Taken from url:
http://marketshare.hitslink.com/
"We use a unique methodology for collecting this data. We collect data from the browsers of site visitors to our exclusive on-demand network of live stats customers."

OK, it's unique and the sampling only occurs within their 'on-demand' network.

That, by itself, sets up an artificial environment.
It isn't by any means normalized .

Rather, it is 'cherry picked' data used for the data set.

====================================

This data provides valuable insight into significant trends for internet usage. These statistics include monthly information on key statistics such as browser trends (e.g. Internet Explorer vs. Firefox market share), search engine referral data (e.g. Yahoo vs. MSN vs. Google traffic market share) and operating system share (Windows vs. Mac vs. Linux market share or even the iPhone market share vs. Windows Mobile).

[ We use a unique methodology for collecting this data. We collect data from the browsers of site visitors to our exclusive on-demand network of live stats customers ].

The data is compiled from approximately 160 million visitors per month. The information published is an aggregate of the data from this network of hosted website statistics. The site unique visitor and referral information is summarized on a monthly, weekly, daily and hourly basis.

In addition, we classify 430+ referral sources identified as search engines. Aggregate traffic referrals from these engines are summarized and reported on. The statistics for search engines include both organic and sponsored referrals. The websites in our population represent almost all countries on earth.

The data is made available free of charge on a monthly basis that includes monthly browser market share trends, top search engine referrals, screen resolutions, top ISPs and operating systems trends. An upgraded version is available that provides reports by geolocation, preview weekly data and other features.

Additional estimates about the website population:

* 76% participate in pay per click programs to drive traffic to their sites.
* 43% are commerce sites
* 18% are corporate sites
* 10% are content sites
* 29% classify themselves as other (includes gov, org, search engine marketers etc..)


For information on mobile share methodology, click here.
0 Votes
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US is not the world
lass23 2nd Feb 2010
The problem is that by market share net applications and sites that use their data as
relevant think that US=world.
I remember that netaplications had 10% for
Macintosh computers, which is absurd, no one
uses Mac computers in rest of the world, except
maybe few percent in west European countries.
So this data has nothing to do with reality. My experience is that 9 out of 10 people uses
Firefox, obviously much different than it's in
US.
Netaplications is pure propaganda for Microsoft
and their products, especially the browsers, I
would say that IE6 usage in Europe is below 5%.
0 Votes
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RE: Google Chrome steals usage share from IE/Firefox, Win 7 breaks 10%
zelrikriando 1st Feb 2010
Net Application has been known to be a joke. Especially
when you want an accuracy better than a few %.
0 Votes
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RE: Google Chrome steals usage share from IE/Firefox, Win 7 breaks 10%
bmgoodman 1st Feb 2010
Adrian,

Telling readers of your blog to upgrade from IE6 seems like preaching to the choir. wink I suspect it's the non-technical folks who hang on to IE 6 (with a few exceptions) and these are the people who are unlikely to read your blog or anything at ZDNet....
0 Votes
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IE6 users are here to stay for a bit
rasmasyean 1st Feb 2010
IE6 is used by companies that run IE6 compatible intranet applications on it. It's not as "vulnerable" as you think here because corporate securuty and firewalls are a lot different from your linksys router.

And consumers get windows update all the time and know how to install IE8. They are not that retarded.
0 Votes
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Users Dumber Than You Think
gstrock 1st Feb 2010
A friend bought a computer with a windows
operating system installed. I asked her what
browser she is using and she couldn't tell me.

Another friend complained that IE locked up on
her. I told her to try FireFox instead and she
asked "What's that?".

A neighbor paid a high school kid $300 to remove
a virus from her window's pc.

My mother-in-law paid a PC-tech guy $400 to
transfer her data from an old pc to a new one.
No she does not run a home business. All she
does is surf the net and send email. I have no
idea what all her data was.

By default, the computing illiterate use
windows, not because it is easy, because they
are stuck with it.

When my sister's winXP machine locked up from a
virus she was sunk. Being flat broke she
couldn't afford to hire the Geek Squad. Out of
desperation, I looked around and found a Linux
system that would run off a CD. I gave it to
her and she had no trouble surfing the net and
sending email. I was really baffled, because I
was under the belief that Linux is hard to use.
0 Votes
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Staying with IE6
Dogcatcher 1st Feb 2010
I intensely dislike the interface for IE7 and IE8, and therefore continue with IE6 as the browser to fetch Microsoft updates on XP systems.

For all other browsing, I use SeaMonkey or Firefox.
0 Votes
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Not getting the point
keebaud@... 2nd Feb 2010
If you only use IE6 to get updates, and browse using another browser, then for goodness sake upgrade to IE8! At least you'll be patching some major security holes, and I think you can put up with the user interface once a month (or however often you don't rely on automatic updates).
0 Votes
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mmm hmm
Homeyjo 1st Feb 2010
Amen.
This goes back to people are afraid of change. Even if it is to a newer version of what they have.
0 Votes
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Linux is still the fastest growing OS on the planet
n0neXn0ne 1st Feb 2010
^o^

0 Votes
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Vista service pack
D.T.Schmitz 1st Feb 2010
And since we know that most if not all of Windows 7 sales are going to Vista upgrades and W7 is a marketing trick to disguise the fact that it is actually a service pack, the stats given are not significant.

And most users are moving from Windows to Linux.
0 Votes
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Windows 7 is mostly from XP
rasmasyean 1st Feb 2010
Most "upgrades" are done via new computer purchases. Those who update a new Vista computer to Win7 are just a few ppl.

If you look at the stats, Vista actually INCREASED marketshare or stayed arround the same after Windows 7 released. This means that the majority of new Vista hits were from corporate deployments.
0 Votes
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What is the source of this?
Pete "athynz" Athens 1st Feb 2010
And since we know that most if not all of Windows 7 sales are going to Vista upgrades and W7 is a marketing trick to disguise the fact that it is actually a service pack, the stats given are not significant.

And most users are moving from Windows to Linux.

Is there any data to support this or is this pure conjecture and wishful thinking on your part?

And Windows 7 is not a service pack to Vista... the correct comparison would be the initial alpha version that should have never seen the light of day (Vista) to the final polished release (7). I'll grant that 7 is not a brand new built from the ground up OS but how many versions of Ubuntu are? Or Red Hat?
0 Votes
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Nope
joe620 1st Feb 2010
I developed an OS and was the only user but my wife tried it out and now I have doubled my market share
0 Votes
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Please don't feed the trolls (nt)
Cobra7fac 24th Feb 2010
.
0 Votes
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ya,from 0%
Stan57 24th Feb 2010
ya,from 0% to 1.02% after 17 YEARS???? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
0 Votes
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IE6 used but not by our choice
21_years_IT Updated - 1st Feb 2010
At my office, we cannot switch from IE 6 because our line of business applications do not work at all on IE 7 and do not work correctly in IE 8 even with IE 6 compatibility mode. Also our tech support with the company is dependent on using what they have certified which is IE 6 only.
You need to be telling the software vendors to get on the stick and change/update/certify their software to work with IE 8. Until they do, we are stuck with IE 6. Not all of the companies are small, either. One of them is General Electric. We have requested a timeline of newer browser support from our vendors but we have not been given a date when we can use newer browser versions.
0 Votes
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nt
Tom-Tech 1st Feb 2010
Most government departments in Britain use IE6 by default too. I don't know anyone who uses IE6 at home and I know very few techies apart from those I work with.
0 Votes
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IE6 Opens gates
rasmasyean 1st Feb 2010
One Mozilla pitch once upon a time was that IE was less secure because Microsoft opened gates that allowed apps to run for business so hackers can also get access to it. The only way to get inter/intranet apps to run in any way even CLOSE to desktop aps was to open these holes. Though I'm sure they were not opened by "default" as Mozilla implied. But the fact that you can makes those legacy apps possible duringthat time. Thats why IE gained such a manopoly almost comparible to Windows. The other browsers cold bearly do anything until Web 2.0 started getting better.
0 Votes
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"IE6 Opens gates" == false
csuwldcat 1st Feb 2010
Actually, that is completely incorrect, you have had the ability to access complex, close to the client code for over 5 years on Firefox, how do you think add-ons write to the files system and other system-level tasks?
0 Votes
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Vendors that offer IE6 based products should be dumped
csuwldcat 1st Feb 2010
I think there is something all the business and workers that are using IE6 reliant products should consider: If the app is reliant on IE6, an insecure, slow, decade-old piece of ****, how good can the app really be? I mean, go find a competitor folks, phase out the stupid vendor that will probably use IE6 until IE12 comes out...I'm sure losing your contract will light a fire under their asses.
0 Votes
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No, YOU need to be on the stick
Lerianis10 1st Feb 2010
Telling them that and telling them that unless they get their apps IE8 compatible, you are going to take your business somewhere else.
0 Votes
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RE: Linux is still the fastest growing OS on the planet
BlackKris 1st Feb 2010
Twice nothing is still nothing...
0 Votes
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Half is from google prolly
rasmasyean 1st Feb 2010
You know that like half or something is from google's search engine indexers. lol
0 Votes
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Feeding the troll...
zelrikriando 1st Feb 2010
Then you'll say that the iPad is amazing ? lmao.

You dont even know that Linux is not an OS.
0 Votes
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I guess that rules out any chance of raising your IQ through multiplication
The Mentalist 1st Feb 2010
Too bad for you.
0 Votes
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Your stats are wrong because ...
n0neXn0ne Updated - 1st Feb 2010
.... FF stats shot up when non US governments requested to their citizens to dump IE. NetApps is not reflecting that surge in FF usage.

^o^

0 Votes
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Precisely why I say their sampling is in an artificial 'closed loop'
D.T.Schmitz Updated - 1st Feb 2010
Good point n0neXn0ne.
0 Votes
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No matter how you add it up
Stan57 24th Feb 2010
No matter how you add it up,it still come out to total failure. After 17 years 1.02%. closed loop,open loop,zipped loop. Linux is a total failure on the desktop no matter how you twist the numbers.
0 Votes
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moreover...
zelrikriando 1st Feb 2010
You should add that they dont even add up to 100%.
How can one define a market share when the numbers
dont add up????
0 Votes
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That is because...
Qbt Updated - 2nd Feb 2010
That is because they throw the stupid non-desktop OSes in there too, for some unexplained reason. If this is supposed to give us an indication of desktop OS use, remove the stupid Java ME, iPhone and Symbian entries. These are different categories. If they want to throw those in, what about all other non-desktop operating systems, hmmm? Shouldn't they also be in there then?
0 Votes
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maths...
JosiahB 1st Feb 2010
is a wonderful thing yes, what you appear to have failed to notice however is that there are more than 3 browsers out there.

Chrome, FF and IE claim the top 3 positions but a whole host of other browsers have a tiny proportion of market share as well, Safari for instance.

The full stats are of course available from netapp themselves.
0 Votes
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RE: Google Chrome steals usage share from IE/Firefox, Win 7 breaks 10%
ct750@... 1st Feb 2010
The Chrome browser is fabulous, just love it! Easy to use,smart, smooth and great in visual/moving objects/video e t c.
0 Votes
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Windows 7 is moving way ahead of XP numbers.
Windows 7 man 1st Feb 2010
Look promising for Microsoft this time around.
0 Votes
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It's Vista take 2
rasmasyean Updated - 1st Feb 2010
They already spent the 6 billion to make Vista and got like 400 mil users. I'm sure they made thier money back many times over.

Now they spend a few extra dollars to make a newer interface...market a "lucky number" and break it apart to work on netbooks. And they are breaking records again!

Don't think for one moment that they are suffering anywhere along the way despite what blogs flame about.
0 Votes
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Some feel Firefox not what is used to be
jscott418 1st Feb 2010
Its obvious why IE8 lost share but Firefox I think is a story of bloat vs speed. I think many Firefox users at least that have been using FF for a while turned to it for speed. Now that Chrome has over taken that role I think those that could care less about add-ons are moving to Chrome. Maybe not in record numbers but it has to make Firefox the most concerned. After all Microsoft can easily afford to accept IE drops because I don't think IE was ever a priority for it. But Mozilla has a problem because their lively hood is browsers and email clients. I am using Firefox but I tool feel its going a different direction then I want it too. Chrome maybe just around the corner for me too.
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RE: Google Chrome steals usage share from IE/Firefox, Win 7 breaks 10%
ron@... 9th Mar 2011
Just for the record, when you see NetApplications statistics that list a "Maxthon Edition" of Internet Explorer, it's not Internet Explorer. It's Maxthon 1 or 2. (Maxthon 3 is list as an "edition" of Safari.) This sort of thing has led to a wide-spread myth that Maxthon is just some sort of skin draped over I.E. No way. Maxthon is a fully independently developed browser that I.E. should hope to be as good as (along with all the other browers).
It's as fast as Chrome, more powerful and versatile than Firefox without requiring all the DIY configuration. Check it out yourself.

Ron White
ron.white@maxthon.com

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