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Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
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Highlights from NetApplications data for November '08 - Firefox and Vista break 20% mark

By | December 1, 2008, 7:03am PST

Summary: NetApplications has released data for November so it’s time to dig through the trends …

NetApplications has released data for November so it’s time once again to dig through the trends:

Note: I know that many of you distrust NetApplications data, but remember that we are only using them to look at trends. Also, let’s remember that as far as Mozilla is concerned, NetApplications data is good enough.

  • Firefox usage hits 20% for November. According to NetApplications a combination of the US election (remember that …), Thanksgiving holiday and extra weekend days (the average 30-day month has 8.57 weekend days while November had 10) gave usage a boost.
  • Overall IE market share eroded to below 70% for the first time (down to 69.77% from 71.27% in October).
  • IE6 usage slips nearly 2% (down to 21.53% from 23.47% in October). IE7 usage up fractionally (up to 47.39% from 47.08% in October).
  • IE8 beta beats both Opera 9.x and Chrome 0.3 (IE8 beta: 0.73% | Opera 9.x: 0.69% | Chrome 0.3: 0.68%).
  • Windows Vista hits 20% usage (up to 20.45% from 19.29% in October).
  • Mac share continues to climb (up to 8.87% from 8.21% in October).
  • iPhone up fractionally (up to 0.37% from 0.33% in October).

So, the trends are:

  • Firefox on the up
  • IE down
  • Mac up

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Topics

Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Windows Vista, Usage, NetApplications, October, Web Browsers, Microsoft Windows Vista (Longhorn), Internet, Operating Systems, Microsoft Windows, Software, 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.

Disclosure

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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Yeah, that's it!
eMJayy 2nd Dec 2008
Very interesting indeed.
View in thread
0 Votes
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What's your ...
n0neXn0ne Updated - 1st Dec 2008
...obsession with NetApplications?

^o^
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Contributr
They publish data regularly ...
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes 1st Dec 2008
happy
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So does the National Enquirer, but ...
MisterMiester 1st Dec 2008
... I still wouldn't use them as a source of reliable information. grin
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Come on, they are still consistent in methodologies, and it shows
DonnieBoy 1st Dec 2008
the trends. Sure, we realize their methodologies do not give a very good global picture.
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Well, the import thing is that Firefox is ABOUT 20% and rising, IE is ABOUT
DonnieBoy 1st Dec 2008
70% and falling. That is what we can draw from this. No need to argue about a percent or two here and there.
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Contributr
Exactly
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes 1st Dec 2008
happy
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And it is also important to note
GuidingLight 1st Dec 2008
that Vista usage is on the rise, and the Holidays are not even here yet.

I think it would be intereseting to see the jump Vista receives due to new system arriving for Christmas.

And no surprise that Chrome has stalled right out of the gate.

I would like to see how it does if it comse preinstalled on new PC's, as it would be interesting to see what browser people would replce it with.
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The market share for Windows overall is falling slightly - thanks to Apple.
DonnieBoy 1st Dec 2008
Obviously, with MS refusing to sell XP at retail, except for netbook class devices, Vista will gain, but, it is at the Expense of XP, NOT OSX.

Also, wait to analyze Chrome until after they release it. In any case, it is about the same as Opera. Not much can be said about a new product, that is still in beta.
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If you think ...
de-void-21165590650301806002836337787023 1st Dec 2008
... that Apple's rise of 0.66% signifies the end of Windows, then you're clearly deluded.

Apple makes fine machines (albeit massively overpriced machines) and a pretty OS (although that OS ONLY runs on Apple's hardware).

But Apple has a very long way to go before it starts to challenge Windows' dominance of the enterprise PC landscape.

This isn't to say that Apple won't eventually try to challenge Microsoft's turf, but don't expect Microsoft to just keel over and die because of a little challenge. History clearly shows that Microsoft performs best when it is challenged ... and challenged it now is.

It's going to be an interesting fight happy
0 Votes
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Just the facts, Windows overall share is falling slowly, but, it IS falling
DonnieBoy 1st Dec 2008
NT.
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Yeah, that's true ( if you believe NetApplications) but...
eMJayy 1st Dec 2008
It would only be temporary. Macs can't compete globally like Windows or Linux because they cater to higher end - that's only a small part of the global market and is irrelevant to the emerging markets. That high end market itself is shrinking as lower end PCs become more and more capable of handling processor-hungry tasks and become affordable to third world countries. Eventually, Windows market share will rebound to some extent as the market expands away from higher cost PCs - at that point it's Linux that will be in a position to take share from M$ in the third world.
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Macbook refresh FTW!
Sleeper Service 1st Dec 2008
Otherwise the marketshare for OSX is pretty flat for the year.
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Still, Windows market share is falling slowly.
DonnieBoy 1st Dec 2008
Sure, OSX is not rising very fast. YET.
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You're right....
Sleeper Service 1st Dec 2008
...and who knows? In 10 years Windows may be down to 80% and Apple up to 15%
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Google and Beta
Software Architect 1982 1st Dec 2008
Most people don't realize it, but GMail and their online suite is still in beta too and GMail's been "out" for YEARS. I suspect the same will be true with Chrome. It's a piece of software that's available... It's out in the open and people are using it, so therefore, it's OK to report numbers on it. No one's saying anything else and you're free to draw you own conclusions on the data. It's just interesting data... that's all. It doesn't need to be "fair'... It only needs to be accurate... or in this case, "accurate enough". And I make no claims as to its accuracy! happy
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Well, Chrome is really not part of the story, Chrome is still insignificant
DonnieBoy 1st Dec 2008
What is significant is that MS is continuing to lose market share while Mozilla gains.

But, Chrome has not been out very long, an it really is beta. But, Google SHOULD drop the beta on gmail, and Microsoft SHOULD put the beta label on almost all of their final releases.
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It's also important to note
Michael Kelly 1st Dec 2008
that Vista has been out almost 2 full years now, and that it only has 20% penetration. That means only one fifth of the computers out there have been updated to Vista on two years, or about one in ten a year, when the regular turnover is once every three to six years. That's not too impressive considering almost all new purchases are expected to include the latest version of Windows.

Whereas Firefox had an external competitor with 90+% penetration and an unrelated monopoly to insure it was installed on every computer. That IS impressive.
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It's also important to note...
Sleeper Service 1st Dec 2008
...XP's penetration for the same timeframe was pretty much the same.

Valid comparisons are always helpful.
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Business adoptions rates ...
MisterMiester 2nd Dec 2008
... were much lower for XP because Windows 2000 was only a year or so old so there was no compelling reason to upgrade. Now that XP is over 7 years old adoption rates for Vista should be much higher for businesses, but they're not. Why? Remember valid comparisons are always helpful.

Did you notice the little fact that Andrian left out? Windows market share has dropped below 90% for the first time in 15 years. The last time Microsoft had less than a 90% share was with Windows 3.10.

Chip, chip, chip and one day the mountain becomes a molehill. grin
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Dont forget to mention, Firefox is over 50 percent now in Europe!
xunil skcor 1st Dec 2008
USA is behind the times as usual
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Us Gwingos ain't Willy berry smart, is we???
DonnieBoy Updated - 1st Dec 2008
NT.
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That's the problem with NetApplications ...
MisterMiester 1st Dec 2008
If they just came out and stated the truth that these numbers are for the North American Market instead of pushing this utter nonsense they are "global figures" when their own aggregative method excludes most of the world. No wonder there's a decline of basic educational skills is the United States. wink
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Agreed
eMJayy 1st Dec 2008
It should be pretty obvious to everyone that NetApplications data figures are only reflecting the North American market. You would think that the 8% figure provided for OSX share was a dead giveaway as to the unreliability of NetApplications - there's no way the global share for Macs could have exceeded 4% given Apple's sales figures for the Mac outside the US.

This is also why I've always argued that Linux numbers are underrepresented. Linux popularity is growing much faster outside the US than within it, but NetApplications data can't show this. Incidentally, it's Google that has provided the most useful information about Linux' global popularity and adoption trends. They've been tracking search terms associated with Linux and particular distros, and have shown conclusively that there's increasing Linux awareness and adoption in Asia and Europe, while US adoption is stagnant, just like the NetApplication figures for Linux.
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You mean Google Trends?
MisterMiester Updated - 2nd Dec 2008
Like this one ...

http://www.google.com/trends?q=ubuntu%2C+fedora%2C+suse&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0

or this one ...

http://www.google.com/trends?q=microsoft%2C+ubuntu%2C+apple&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0

Pretty much describes what you wrote. grin

Edit:

This one is very interesting ...

http://www.google.com/trends?q=microsoft%2C+linux%2C+apple&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=1
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Yeah, that's it!
eMJayy 2nd Dec 2008
Very interesting indeed.
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Over 50% in Europe?
Sleeper Service 1st Dec 2008
No it isn't.
0 Votes
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Europe does have higher FF usage
eMJayy 1st Dec 2008
I doubt the average FF usage has reached 50% in Europe but it's probably pretty close by now. Europe averaged over 25% FF usage in 2007 - and that was before FF3. In fact, some European countries have FF usage figures of OVER 50% - I think Finland has the highest FF usage in the world right now. Usage statistics from NetApplications don't actually reflect global trends; they just represent US trends.
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I thought Vista was a failure?
JoeMama_z 1st Dec 2008
20% isn't bad for two years, not quite XP's adoption rate but then again XP was only competing with 98/ME and a relatively small 2000 installation base.
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My personal beef with netapplications
rtk Updated - 1st Dec 2008
Why is it that in the Operating Systems Version Trend chart, we don't see Mac versions, instead we get the platform.

Where's Leopard, Tiger, Panther, etc? What exactly is "Mac OS"? If "Mac Intel" is just all those running OS X on the Intel platform, is "Mac OS" versions prior to 10? And wouldn't "Mac Intel" include hackitosh's, Pystar systems and VMWare installs?

If they are breaking out actual versions for Windows, the same should be done for OS X. We've no idea of Leopard's adoption rates beyond Apple's own marketing.

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