Oct. 6: Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is feeling the heat from competition — rivals Google and Mozilla. Microsoft’s browser has seen its market share fall below 50 per cent for the first time in September, according to StatCounter. com.
Meanwhile, Mozilla’s Firefox has cornered 31.5 per cent of the browser market share while Google’s Chrome comes in third with 11.54 per cent. Chrome has seen its market share treble over the past one year. This is the first major challenge for Internet Explorer’s dominance, which has lasted for over a decade.
Explorer had last squared off against Netscape, which was the dominant browser in the 1990s, but was than upstaged. For Explorer, the fall in market share has been steeper in Europe, where it is down to 40.26 per cent. However, in spite of the fall, it still remains the dominant internet browser with an overall market share of 49.87 per cent. The top three browsers have a combined market share of over 92 per cent, with smaller names such as Opera and Safari making up the rest.