Topic: Firefox achieves 10 percent market share

[Clive]

Ingrid Marson
ZDNet UK
November 03, 2005, 11:45 GMT
 
Mozilla's Firefox has managed to grab over 10 percent of the Web browser marker with its highest percentage to date, according to Web analytics firm OneStat.com on Tuesday.

The company said that Mozilla's browser now has a global market share of 11.5 percent, an increase of 2.8 percentage points since April. Some of this growth is at the expense of Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which has declined by 1.2 percentage points since April, to a market share of 85.5 percent.

The popularity of Firefox varies across the world, with a market share of 14.1 percent in the US, but only 4.9 percent in the UK, according to OneStat. Its figures are based on a sample of two million Web users worldwide.
 
How much of the browser market will Firefox eventually claim?
 
 <10% - Firefox has peaked
 11%-50% - It's going to be a major player
 >50% - Watch out Microsoft!
 
But other companies have noticed a decline in Firefox over recent months. Last month, Web applications provider NetApplications reported that the open source browser's share of the market dropped by 0.7 percentage points from August to September.

Although this wasn't the first time that Firefox' share has dropped, RedMonk analyst James Governor said he believes the overall trend for Firefox is upwards.

"The notion that this is the end of the road for Firefox is completely absurd. Any turbulence in the growth path is a temporary thing," said Governor.

[chorleydave]

the open source browser's share of the market dropped by 0.7 percentage points from August to September.

This was probably only to be expected, as the other "alternative" browser, Opera, was being given away ad-free in September, so those who wouldn't give a second thought about a paid-for and/or ad-supported alternative would have at least had a look at it.

I like Firefox, and use it when I encounter the odd website that is not Opera-friendly.  However, I am concerned that the more popular it is becoming, the less secure it is becoming.

Incidentally, I am currently playing about with Linspire 4.5 on a spare PC.  Perhaps a question for Sam, what would you recommend as browser for a Linux operating system?

[sam]

for linux...I normally use mozilla or firefox. they are both pretty good and secure..though the issue of security is less.

I personally use gnome so I use these as default as well. KDE has konqueror (probably spelt wrong) which isnt bad and works in gnome but I don't like it...to fancy.

You could probably get a binary or the source for opera to get that to work in linux.

[sam]

oh I would always go with the gnome desktop over KDE but thats just my humble opinion...its a question of personal taste and gnome looks less "plastic" if that makes sense