From the web browser news desk ... the people at Net Applications released their browser Market Share report recently, and here's a quick look at their numbers:
- IE dropped 6.54% in 2009 to a 62.69% market share
- Chrome gained 3.09% to a 4.63 share
- Firefox gained 2.03% to a 24.61 share
- Safari gained 0.99% to 4.46
- Opera gained 0.21% to 2.40
In tabular form, here are the web browser market share numbers for all operating systems as of December, 2009:
| Browser | Market Share |
|---|---|
| IE | 62.69 |
| Firefox | 24.61 |
| Chrome | 4.63 |
| Safari | 4.46 |
| Opera | 2.40 |
And here is the web browser Market Share trend information from February, 2009 through December, 2009:
| Browser | Feb. 09 | Dec. 09 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| IE | 69.23 | 62.69 | -6.54% |
| Firefox | 22.58 | 24.61 | 2.03 |
| Chrome | 1.54 | 4.63 | 3.09 |
| Safari | 3.47 | 4.46 | 0.99 |
| Opera | 2.19 | 2.40 | 0.21 |
According to this data, Chrome is now the #3 browser in the world.
Browser market share - opinion
Even with just a beta version of Chrome available on the Mac, I'm a Chrome fan, and I now use it as much as I use Firefox. I find that Firefox looks a little dated compared to Chrome, especially when a theme is applied. I haven't measured it, but Chrome is also faster than Firefox on Mac OS X, and some times it's so fast it's pretty darned amazing. Conversely, Firefox has a ton of plugins, compared to a limited number on Chrome.
The speed of Chrome makes me see why Google decided to create their own browser, though you have to also wonder why they didn't just contribute to the Firefox project. (To answer my own question, from a business perspective I'll say that if you think that most future applications should be web applications, you want to make sure you have control of the browser.)
I don't have much to say about Safari ... it looks a lot like Firefox on the Mac, but it doesn't have anything terribly unique to add to the browser world. The "Top sites" view is probably its most unique feature, and the ability to resize text areas is nice, but nothing else about Safari really blows me away, and I now use Firefox and Chrome before I use Safari on the Mac.
Other browser market share data
As a final note, in January, 2008, IE had a 78.24% market share, and Firefox had a 16.51% market share. Safari was at 2.62%, Opera was 1.82%, and Chrome did not exist. Using these numbers, IE has dropped over 15% in 24 months, Firefox has increased over 8%, and Chrome has gone from zero to 4.63%.
Market Share information
Besides browsers, Market Share also has information on search engines, operating systems, mobile devices, screen resolutions, and a few other categories.
Here's a link to the Net Applications browser market share report.
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