It seems as if Microsoft’s bloated Internet Explorer (IE) browser may be headed to the scrap heap. And you know what? It’s about damn time.
That’s right. I mean, why would anyone want to waste their time with an archaic, walled-garden, counter-intuitive browser?
There are just so many other faster and more versatile browsing platforms to choose from, including Chrome (Google), FireFox (Mozilla), Safari (Apple) and SeaMonkey (Mozilla).
Fortunately, people are finally catching on and realizing that, yes, there is an alternative to unrestrained bloat.
And so, for the first time, Microsoft’s IE worldwide market share has unceremoniously fallen below 50% – to 49.87% in September.
Meanwhile, Mozilla’s Firefox weighed in at an impressive 31.5%, while Google Chrome tripled from 3.69% in September 2009 to 11.54% just a year later.
“This is certainly a milestone in the Internet browser wars,” confirmed StatCounter CEO Aodhan Cullen.
“Just two years ago IE dominated the worldwide market with 67%.”
Cullen partially attributed Microsoft’s woes to a recent agreement with the European Commission to offer EU users a choice and menu of browsers aside from the formerly ubiquitous IE.
“[This] may have tipped Internet Explorer below 50% globally,” said Cullen.
“[Indeed], European IE market share has fallen to 40.26% in September this year from 46.44% in September last year. [However], in North America, IE is still above 50% at 52.3% followed by Firefox at 27.21% and Chrome at 9.87%.”
