Vista/IE market share slide, Win 7/Firefox/Chrome surge

Summary: According to data supplied by web metrics firm Net Applications, both Vista and Internet Explorer lost market share during September, while Windows 7, Firefox and Chrome all saw a surge in market share.

According to data supplied by web metrics firm Net Applications, both Vista and Internet Explorer lost market share during September, while Windows 7, Firefox and Chrome all saw a surge in market share.

Vista saw its market share slide by 0.18%, which might not itself seem significant, but it's the first time the OS has lost share since January 2008. Its market share is now at 18.6%.

Internet Explorer's market share also took a battering, dropping by a massive 1.26%, taking its market share to a new low of 65.7%. This is a huge hit for Microsoft.

As for gains, Windows 7 is on the up, with a 1.52% market share, up 0.34%. This means that already, nearly one in every 66 computers browsing the web is running Windows 7. For an operating system that's not yet out for general release yet, that's pretty impressive.

Firefox has also seen a surge in its market share, up 0.77% to 23.75%. Same for Chrome, climbing 0.33% to 4.24%.

Interesting trends, be even more interesting to see if they continue.

Net Applications measures OS and browser usage by tracking the computers that visit the 40,000 sites it monitors for clients, which results in a data pool of about 160 million unique visitors per month.

Topics: Browser, Microsoft, Operating Systems, Software, Windows

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  • IE "Hit"

    I never understood this....

    "Internet Explorer?s market share also took a battering, dropping by a massive 1.26%, taking its market share to a new low of 65.7%. This is a huge hit for Microsoft."

    What kind of hit? IE could go away and MS wouldn't lose a dime because it seems they don't make a dime off this free offering. OK, maybe consumer mindshare but still, no dollars there because IE does not sell Windows. It is the other way around.

    Kind of the same argument applied to the EC browser BS.
    djmik
    • IE is huge for Microsoft, as it prevents the standard web from getting

      better faster, and creates lock-in for Windows
      since many sites only work correctly with IE. As
      people spend more and more time in the browser,
      and browsers get faster and more capable, if
      people are using cross platform browsers like
      Chrome and Firefox, that is a HUGE problem for
      MS.

      Eventually, there will not be much to justify
      the high price and resource requirements of
      Windows.
      DonnieBoy
      • Exactly!

        It's amazing that many people still don't realize that Microsoft's strategy is to keep the browser market fragmented, so they can entrench their proprietary Silverlight as "the" app platform on the internet. Silverlight is intended to lock people/companies in, in much the same way people/companies got locked in to Windows.

        Do people REALLY think Microsoft would want to compete in a fair & open market, where quality & innovative products win?

        Hopefully, Google Chrome Frame will get traction, to prevent this from happening.
        linuser
        • Except Silverlight works in all OSs

          EPIC FAIL! :)

          [i]Do people REALLY think Microsoft would want to compete in a fair & open market, where quality & innovative products win?[/i]

          Yes.
          NonZealot
          • That's what Microsoft wants you to believe

            Just watch how Silverlight will just happen to work better with Windows. Technology changes, but Microsoft's tactics do not.

            Companies who touch Silverlight are asking for the same problems that they got with IE6, Sadly, I'm sure some will fall for it again.
            linuser
          • FUD

            Classic ABMer tactic. When the facts can't back you up, make up scary scenarios. Nice try. We see right through it. :)
            NonZealot
          • Always hard at work to push people into the abyss hey Zealot?

            The guy makes a very sensible observation and you, fearing someone might be reading, immediately reach for the official M$ bullshit manual and post their favorite canned response.

            How imaginative... Why don't you put what's left of your gray matter to work?

            Try to think for yourself man!
            The Mentalist
          • A sensible observation? You're joking, right?

            And I'm sure there wasn't a lick of bias in that so-called bawwwwwaaa ha haha ha "sensible observation".
            mgp3
          • Pulling for straws, much?

            A Microsoft product that works better under Windows? That's definitely an evil scheme. Wait, but doesn't iTunes work better in the Mac OS?

            And in my experience, Firefox runs Silverlight swimmingly.
            PlayFair
          • What utter nonsense!

            The King at playing [i]that[/i] game is not MS, but APPLE. Ever noticed how pretty much ANY of the apps (with the exception of the recent Safari release) run like a dog with three legs on Windows, while handling just fine on their [i]own[/i] over-priced machines.

            As to Silverlight, the only reason there is room for it in the market is because of the way Adobe has dragged its heels in getting Flash Player up to scratch, and especially failing to release a x64 build for anyone outside the Linux community.

            So take off that tin-foil hat - I think it's cutting of the blood flow to your brain!!
            kaninelupus
          • Hello Pot.. Kettle calling..

            [pre]The King at playing that game is not MS, but APPLE. Ever noticed
            how pretty much ANY of the apps (with the exception of the recent
            Safari release) run like a dog with three legs on Windows, while
            handling just fine on their own over-priced machines.[/pre]

            Sorry, Microsoft has been crippling their Macintosh software long
            before iTunes came out. Ever heard of Microsoft Office 4.2? the worst,
            slowest most bloated piece of rubbish Microsoft has ever tried to
            peddle on the Mac.

            They are still doing it, making the Office suite just incompatible
            enough to cause issues in a Windows environment. e.g. Entourage, no
            VBA scripting etc. While you quibble with iTunes and Safari for free on
            Windows, Mac users have to pay for the privilege of MS's 'second
            fiddle' software.
            martinws
          • Unless you have

            an older PC and the processor doesn't support the SSE instruction set...
            Rodo1
          • I didn't say it worked with all PCs

            I said it worked with all OSs.
            NonZealot
          • Not Exactly

            Actually, there is a port to other Operating Systems that is being done by 3rd parties. It is not written by Microsoft and may not be 100% compatible.
            mystic100
          • Silverlight is windows Mac OS X only

            Repeating your lie doesn't make it true.

            Moonlight is not Silverlight, just an incomplete clone.

            The only cross platform RIA tool is Adobe's Flash.
            Richard Flude
          • Isn't moblin linux?

            http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Intel_Microsoft_add_Silverlight_3_to_Moblin/551-106544-580.html
            hungryjoe
          • Good point but...

            It's not a reality yet. They're still working on
            it. I'll believe it when I see Silverlight running
            in Ubuntu for example.
            bandersnatch42vt
          • Um, no it doesn't

            Although I'm not a big user of Linux distros (main
            machine is Win7) I'm very familiar with a couple
            and Silverlight does not work on a Linux based OS.
            Sorry, the open source port called Moonlight is
            not MS' Silverlight and is always a version behind
            and full of bugs.
            bandersnatch42vt
      • spot-on

        I agree with you.

        Some additional comments:

        The web developers of my wife's company create web pages that
        require the use of IE to work well. So their franchisees are forced to
        use IE and therefore Windows. I visit some financial sites that require
        the use of IE and recently I even had a similar requirement while using
        a Symantec web page.

        The drop of IE's popularity is great news for those of us that prefer to
        use non-Windows systems and/or dislike IE. It should serve as a
        wakeup call to lazy companies that felt comfortable making their web
        pages compatible with IE only.

        I hope that IE's popularity keeps eroding for the benefit of the
        (current) minority.
        TroutHound
      • LOL, your point is ANNIHILATED

        IE7 and IE8. Nuff said. :)

        The truth is that IE marketshare no longer matters. Windows continues to sell well because Windows continues to be the best home OS out there.
        NonZealot