Microsoft loses about 40 million Internet Explorer users in one month

By Jon Martindale November 3, 2016

microsoft browser loss internet explorer

Despite continued updates and improvements to its Edge browser, Microsoft can’t seem to hold on to users as they transition from various versions of Internet Explorer. The latest figures suggest that in October alone, Microsoft shed some 40 million users, with the likes of Chrome and Firefox scooping them up.

Looking at the latest data from NetMarketShare, Chrome is still the undisputed king of the hill, boasting the kind of percentages Microsoft used to enjoy — with a 55 percent market share at the end of October. It found an extra 0.58 percent from the likes of Internet Explorer, which dropped a surprising 2.5 percent — equivalent to about 40 million users, per ComputerWorld.

Related Videos

But where did the rest of those users go? Mostly, it seems, to Firefox. It managed to increase its share of the market to 11.14 percent over its 9.19 September share.

That is quite a surprising turn, considering 2016 has not been Firefox’s best. Its user base has fluctuated frequently, bottoming out at 7.69 percent in August, but it quickly recovered. Perhaps that is thanks to its introductions of sandboxed tabs and an in-development new browser engine.

Regardless, the largest shift came from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Though you might have expected a large number of those turncoats to adopt Microsoft Edge instead, they did not. While the new face of Microsoft’s web portal was been steadily growing since its introduction with Windows 10 in mid-2015, it has not seen any real spikes in user adoption. Following this most recent exodus from the old IE standards, Edge saw just a 0.1-percent increase in its user share.

Considering the ease Microsoft has in marketing its browsers to users compared to Chrome or Firefox, this is rather surprising. It has spent much of 2016 seeing its browser dominance overtaken easily by Chrome, which overtook the multiple different versions of Internet Explorer in April.

At the end of 2015, Microsoft’s total browser share was comparable to Chrome’s now and yet as we close out 2016, it has been reduced to barely a quarter. While it is unknown whether Firefox’s share can continue its upswing it has experienced lately, it seems Microsoft’s overall share will continue to diminish.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Computing

New features coming to Microsoft Edge include tab groups and picture-in-picture

A person sitting at a desk, using a laptop.

Microsoft Edge, the company's signature browser, has been receiving updates throughout the year -- and there is more to come. The current feature road map for Edge reveals that some interesting changes to the browser are coming soon. While there are also some smaller updates in development, the two standouts include tab groups and Video Picture in Picture (PiP).

The road map presented by Microsoft covers a timeline from late last year through September 2021 and includes over 70 changes to Microsoft Edge. A lot of these changes have already been implemented, such as the addition of the date of birth to autofill or the ability to bulk-delete passwords. However, Microsoft's plans for the rest of the year are slightly more interesting than the minor quality of life changes we've received thus far.

Computing

In a year, we’ll finally be able to say goodbye to Internet Explorer for good

microsoft issues emergency windows patch internet explorer 6 768x768

It's official -- the end of Internet Explorer is on the horizon. Microsoft confirmed what most of us already expected in a blog post released today. The company made the announcement over a year in advance. Starting on June 15, 2022, Internet Explorer will be retired and no longer supported on most versions of Windows 10. However, the legacy of IE11 lives on in Microsoft Edge.

While the vast majority of Windows 10 versions will no longer support IE11, Microsoft said that it won't be retired from all of them. This change will affect devices running Windows 10 version 20H2 and later, on both SKUs and IoT units. This means that most people are soon going to see the official retirement of Internet Explorer.

Computing

The Windows 10 File Explorer is about to look very different

surface pro 7 vs microsoftsurfacepro7 2 768x768

Microsoft is updating the look of the Windows 10 File Explorer to make it more modern. With the latest Windows Insider Dev Channel release, Microsoft started testing new modern folder icons for photos, desktop, documents, music, and even the recycle bin.

Thanks to these changes, Microsoft's iconography in Windows 10 is now a little more consistent and should feel a bit different if you're brave enough to install this work-in-progress beta version of Windows. The new icons even line up with previous changes such as the refreshed Start Menu look in last year's Windows 10 October 2020 Update.