Internet Explorer Regaining Market Share

Microsoft has for years been sliding down the popularity rankings as competition from other browsers has increased. It’s been seen as a bit of a joke of a browser for years, since the competition was basically better in such as ways as faster browsing (rendering speed) features and importantly, web standards. However, Microsoft has been putting serious effort into improving its browser, which comes by default with every copy of Windows sold. As a result, its latest one, IE9 (not XP compatible) has been increasing in market share as can be seen in the table below.

IE rose from 52.8% total worldwide browser usage in February to 53.8% in March, as tracked by Net Applications. Meanwhile all of the competing browsers dropped in usage. One area where Microsoft isn’t doing well is in mobile browser usage. Here, Apple’s Safari sits at 60.5% in March, while IE is relegated to the ‘Other’ browsers section of the chart at a mere half a percent usage. This is most likely because Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS isn’t at all popular and demonstrates the massive advantage that having your browser bundled with the operating system gives when that operating system has something like 90% market penetration.

Credit: data by Net Applications; chart by Stephen Shankland/CNET