Firefox Market Share Is Now Bigger Than Microsoft
What browser do you use on your laptop? Firefox has long been the underdog despite the feature-rich set available in its browser. Still, the tide is shifting. Firefox has now captured more market share than Microsoft has with both its browsers. However, the bigger question is does it really matter since Google Chrome has almost double the market share of both these competitors combined.
The latest figures show that Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer now have about 15.5 percent of the market, down from 15.8 percent in March. Firefox, on the other hand, now sits at 15.6 percent of the market, beating both Microsoft’s browsers combined totals.
Of course the bad news for both companies is that despite this shift both platforms are down as Google’s Chrome browser continues to scoop up more of the market, now sitting at 60.5 percent, up from 59 percent in February.
Why is Microsoft faltering? It seems the new Edge browser has failed to impress consumers as much as they would have hoped with the launch of Windows 10. Some have blamed this lack of interest in the limitations of the browser, such as not being able to install any add-ons or plug-ins to enhance the browser’s functionality.
Others believe it is because when you upgrade to Windows 10, your existing apps remain. This means that many Windows 10 adopters haven’t made the switch as they simply stuck with the browser they were already using.
Chrome is the big winner in the last few months, taking more and more market share away from all of the other browsers out there. If the trend continues, Chrome’s share of the market will be more than double that of the others combined.
Other browsers out there, such as Safari and Opera, have remained unchanged for months, capturing a combined total of 8.4 percent.
The browser wars are one of the fiercest battles ever to rage in the PC world. Beginning in the 90s when Microsoft introduced Internet Explorer as a competitor to Netscape and continuing through to today, the war is never ending. Sure some of the players have changed, but the battle still rages. Interesting to note, Firefox was originally based on some of Netscape’s code back in the day. While it has had many changes and is really different today, in some ways it seems Netscape is getting its revenge against Microsoft after so many years.
The biggest question that remains today is what all of these other players will do to combat the ever growing dominance of Google Chrome. Will there be anything they can do? Or are we seeing another repeat of Microsoft’s web browser dominance? Time will tell. If history does repeat itself, don’t expect Google Chrome to reign supreme forever.
What do you think? Is this good news for Firefox or are we really seeing bad news cloaked in a silver lining? Sound off about what you think in the comments below. Also, I would love to hear which browser you prefer to use for all of your surfing needs today? Let me know and we can get our own little informal survey going.
