Aiee! Internet Explorer’s Market Share Melting.
The slow, steady decline of Microsoft Internet Explorer continues apace with the ubiquitous browser charting another market share low in April. According to new data from Net Applications, IE ended the month with 59.95 percent of the browser market–down from 60.65 percent in March and 67.77 percent from the same time last year.
This is the first time IE’s share has ever fallen below 60 percent.
Meanwhile, Mozilla’s Firefox, Apple’s (AAPL) Safari and Google’s (GOOG) Chrome all made small gains, apparently at IE’s expense. Chrome posted the largest of the bunch, rising 0.6 points to 6.73 percent. Firefox’s market share rose 0.07 points to 24.59 percent. And Safari’s increased just 0.06 points to 4.7 percent, a surprisingly underwhelming gain for a browser that ships not just on the Mac, but on the iPhone, iPod touch and now the iPad as well. (Click chart below to enlarge.)
Yes, IE’s month-over-month drop is piddling. But the year-over-year decrease is worth noting because the rate of decline in IE’s market share is clearly accelerating. The browser has lost nearly eight percent market share since April 2009. And it has lost nearly 20 percent since April 2008, when its market share was over 77 percent. Clearly, IE 8, while largely well-received, hasn’t done much to reverse the overall decline of Microsoft’s (MSFT) browser.
Hard to believe that IE held an estimated 95 percent of the browser market in 2003.