Sunday, January 09, 2011

Firefox Grabs European Top Slot From IE

Microsoft's Internet Explorer has fallen from its number one slot as the most-used browser in Europe. According to StatCounter, Firefox grabbed 38.11% share in Europe in December, edging out for the first time IE who had some 37.52%. Chrome had a 14.58% but was up from 5.06% for the same month a year earlier.

A contributing factor is thought to be Microsoft and the European Commission anti trust agreement which was reached in October 2009 and that dictated that Windows users be given a clearer choice when selecting a default web browser and also presented them with a ballot screen in which they can change from Internet Explorer to one of 11 other browsers.
IE is still dominates in North America with 48.92% market share and where Firefox has only 26.7% , Chrome at 12.82% and Safari 10.16%

It is clear that the domination of the Browser market by Microsoft is coming to and end and alternatives now are able to both compete and attract users.

1 comment:

BVan said...

The interesting thing about the statistic is that the US perception is that Europe is more Windows dominated than the US, which then assumes that IE would be more dominant in Europe.

I am happy that this is the case. My question I ask though is: what factors make IE more popular in the US? Does computer literacy have an influence?