Internet Explorer usage to plummet below 50 percent by mid-2012

September 3, 2011 By Mike Flacy

With consumers abandoning Microsoft's web browser for more rapidly updated alternatives such as Google Chrome, the future of Internet Explorer is dependent on consumers upgrading to new versions of Windows.

According to new data posted this week from a company called Net Applications, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer appears to be continuing a downward spiral. Over the last ten months, Microsoft has lost five percent of the web browser market while Google’s Chrome has gained about six percent. The amount of people using Internet Explorer is expected to fall below the 50 percent mark around late May of 2012. One bright point for Microsoft is that usage of its latest version of Internet Explorer, IE9, increased by about two percent from July to August. However, IE9 is limited to usage on Windows Vista and Windows 7. Windows XP users are limited to Internet Explorer 8 until upgrading.

Across all operating systems, Internet Explorer 8 is the most popular browser at a bit over 30 percent of the market. Google Chrome 13 followed in second place at about 11 percent of the market and the aging, third place Internet Explorer 6 clocked in at about 10 percent. This version of Internet Explorer is often reviled by web designers and developers, but it seemed to hold fairly strong over July to August and barely dropped in usage. The ability of Google Chrome to quietly upgrade without bothering the consumer seems to have helped Google keep its user base consistently using the latest version of the browser.

Mozilla’s Firefox has remained fairly stagnant over the last 10 months, but has only lost about one percent of the browser market. Mozilla recently switched to an upgrade cycle identical to Google Chrome as the inability to roll out quick updates made the browser seem stale in comparison to Chrome. Apple’s Safari browser slowly gained market share over the last year to the tune of one percent and the Opera browser seems to be slowly fading away. Opera’s share dropped from 2.42 percent in September 2010 to 1.68 percent in August 2011.

Showing 18 comments

Jesenko Plecic at 10:46pm 4th September 2011 Even my mother quit using IE years ago
Joe Lachiana at 7:08pm 4th September 2011 You people are hitting the hippy lettuce again. 50% if you count tablets/smart phones that can't browse more than 20% of the internet. If you are looking to see ALL of the internet you'll be using IE.
Gary Herbert at 10:07am 4th September 2011 great news...
Andrew McCoy at 8:15am 4th September 2011 why in the world would anybody even use any Internet Explorer other than to get a new browser? lol.
Rajiv Singhal at 6:08am 4th September 2011 Good riddance
Miles Lim at 4:59am 4th September 2011 Most people still uses Windows XP so they can't upgrade to Internet Explorer 9. Google Chrome is nice but the memory management is just horrible, eating up valuable RAM. Mozilla Firefox 6 had introduced some memory management and it's working kinda well.
Michael M Chronister at 4:35am 4th September 2011 Long live Google Chrome, that is until something better comes along.
Prashant Sharma at 3:04am 4th September 2011 try IE9......... its far more better than any other browser
Prashant Sharma at 3:04am 4th September 2011 try IE9......... its far more better than any other browser
Ron Coley at 3:03am 4th September 2011 I thought it was less than that...
Mark 'Reaper' Beauchamp at 2:51am 4th September 2011 Lol that's cuz internet explorer sucks
Christina Moore at 2:33am 4th September 2011 Web designers rejoice!!
Ismil Shirafkan at 2:22am 4th September 2011 Google chrome ftw.
Lorne Hammond at 2:16am 4th September 2011 Anyone still using internet explorer needs the beats.
Troy Stone at 2:09am 4th September 2011 Google Chrome... its damn near flawles to me. I am never looking back.
Adam Ant Burgess at 2:08am 4th September 2011 you mean it's actually above 50 percent now?
Blake Tibbetts at 2:08am 4th September 2011 Oh....people still use that?
Adonis J. King at 2:04am 4th September 2011 I JUST moved from IE to firefox and now that i see the diff. in upload speed..well i can see why the expectation of a plummet...