So the global browser statistics are out (again). OneStat.com conducted a survey on the global browser market. The winner is not of any surprise, with Microsoft Internet Explorer conquering 94.8% of the market.
The current leading browser is Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0, seeing their percentages increased by 1.8% from 66.3% of July 2003 to 68.1% of January 2004.
Newcomer Apple Safari has seen a slight increase of 0.23% from 0.25% of July 2003 to 0.48% of January 2004. Soon it’ll be displacing Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 with a 0.7% share of the market.
Mozilla has also seen some growth, with lots of technology geeks showing support for their Firebird browser. With 1.8% of the browser share, they have got lots of catching up to do, but these things take time. Individual statistics of Mozilla software, like Netscape, Firebird, Thunderbird and other possibly birds, are not provided.
- Microsoft IE 6.0 – 68.1%
- Microsoft IE 5.5 – 13.8%
- Microsoft IE 5.0 – 11.8%
- Mozilla – 1.8%
- Opera 7.0 – 0.8%
- Microsoft IE 4.0 – 0.7%
- Apple Safari – 0.48%
Source: OneStat.com
You’ve seen it, Microsoft Internet Explorer is still number one. As for the moment, no browser can substitute Internet Explorer. It is still the browser to generate most codes correctly, just simply because most webmasters test their pages on Internet Explorer only. It’s the thought of why should I waste my time to test on other browsers.
There are a few reason Microsoft won this game. First of all,Internet Explorer become free years ago, causing Netscape to suffer loses. [Netscape used not to be a free browser.] Then Microsoft bundle it with Windows, and claimed Internet Explorer is Windows, so they can’t remove the browser when the operating system. Plus, Netscapekilled themselves by not ironing the bugs in Netscape 4.0 before it is released. Microsoft added lots of additions into Internet Explorer which is not supported by other browsers.
By the way, Internet Explorer is the most non-standard browser I ever seen. I see many web sites with semi-transparent layers and colored scrollbars. I just want to let you people know that I can’t see those stuff with Firebird (Mozilla).
Anyway, Internet Explorer 6.0 Service Pack 2 will be out soon, with an in-built pop up stopper, I think they are the last to adopt that feature. Microsoft has finally awoken..
