Firefox 4 beats IE9 out of the gate in usage Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20049592-

robinbredin

robinbredin

robinbredin

Associate
Joined
8 Jan 2009
Posts
1,492
Location
Northern Ireland
Firefox 4 beats IE9 out of the gate in usage

Despite arriving a week later, Firefox 4 is outpacing Internet Explorer 9 in real-world use so far, new statistics show.
Microsoft released IE9 on March 14, and Mozilla's Firefox 4 arrived on March 22--both brand-new even by the fast-moving standards of today's software market. By month's end, IE9 accounted for 1.0 percent of browsing activity worldwide, according to statistics from analytics firm Net Applications. Firefox 4, though, reached 1.7 percent, despite its later start.


http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20049592-264.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
 
Last edited:
Not too surprising really. About 60% of IE users are on WinXP, and IE9 doesn't support it. Plus lots of IE users will get IE9 when it trickles down to them through Windows Update, where a lot of Firefox users are early adopters.
 
I use IE for only one thing, I have my homepage set to the Nvidia Drivers download page so I just have to open it and click check for new GFX drivers to see if there are any new ones released.

I use Opera for everything else.
 
Skyfall said:
Does anyone else wish IE would just **** off already?
Click to expand...

I wish IE6 would. IE9 seems ok though.

As for the usage figures, you always see that when a new version of FF (or Chrome) gets released, because the update mechanism is built into the browser. It always takes IE longer because it's part of Windows update (and IE9 has yet to appear on that). Plus there are some people who never run WU...
 
Mattus said:
Not too surprising really. About 60% of IE users are on WinXP, and IE9 doesn't support it. Plus lots of IE users will get IE9 when it trickles down to them through Windows Update, where a lot of Firefox users are early adopters.
Click to expand...
Yep, FF grabs users quickly as the enthusiasts download it straight away but it tops out at a relatively low total amount of users after only a short space of time.

IE9 will see slower uptake as enthusiasts will tend to take a look at it and then move on to the newer/more frequent FF and Chrome builds. Once IE9 hits Windows update it'll pass FF quite quickly

Skyfall said:
Does anyone else wish IE would just **** off already?
Click to expand...
Not really,the vast majority of users really don't care about FF extensibility in the same way as nerds do. FF is becoming less relevant because IE (in particular IE9 now) is more than "good enough" for the vast majority of users and is "easy". More importantly Chrome has the marketing muscle of Google and so is taking a huge amount of "non IE" users as people are familiar with the brand. FF and Opera are left increasingly nowhere outside the ranks of the enthusiasts.

I'm afraid FF is fighting a rear guard action and slowly going the way of Netscape.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom