Microsoft posted a solid market share gain for its Internet Explorer web browser for July, while Mozilla is losing traction and Google’s Chrome is slowing down. Could it be that Microsoft’s IE8 TV commercial campaign is showing effect?
NetApplications June browser market share estimates
Both NetApplications and StatCounter browser market share statistics reveal that Microsoft isn’t rolling over just yet. In June, Microsoft flexed its muscles and diverted enough attention to IE8 to help the entire Internet Explorer installed base grow again.
IE came in at 60.32%, up from 59.75% in May, according to Net Applications. Firefox dropped from 24.32% to 23.81% and Chrome climbed slightly from 7.04% to 7.24%. Safari also increased its share by a modest margin to 4.85%, while Opera lost slightly and now stands at 2.27%.
StatCounter’s charts show a similar trend, albeit different numbers. IE climbed from 52.86% to 54.75%. Firefox dropped from 31.15% to 29.72%; Chrome dropped from 9.24% to 9.02%. Safari was about flat at 4.0% and Opera dropped from 1.9 to 1.7%.
StatCounter browser market share estimates for June
So, where does the growth for IE come from? Looking behind NetApplications’ numbers, it was IE8 that gained 0.66 points to 25.84% market share, which crows this browser as the winner for the month. IE8 outgrew the losses of IE7 (-0.25 points down to 11.79%) by a considerable margin, while Microsoft is still stuck with a pretty solid market share for IE6. NetApplications estimated the June market share at 17.17%, which was up 0.01 points from May.
It is reasonable to assume that Microsoft was able to attract market share from its rivals, most likely Firefox, which was not able to convert all of the users it lost to the most recent Firefox 3.6.x. Firefox 3.0/3.5, for example, lost a combined 0.58 points of market share in June, while 3.6 gained only 0.37 points.
It appears that Microsoft’s aggressive and somewhat misleading commercial campaign is showing some effect. Microsoft also seeded some misleading news about Chrome performance, which may have had some impact on its rivals. In less than a month, it may have turned around a trend that saw IE on a consistent decline that has cost Microsoft more than 30 points of market share over the past 4 years.
Google’s Chrome has been gaining market share again, but its pace has slowed down and StatCounter even believes that Chrome may have surrendered market share. However, despite its young age and relatively low market share it held its own against Microsoft and the news about performance improvements may have been enough to lift Chrome’s share. However, Chrome will need more in the coming months, especially if Microsoft rolls out a significantly better IE9.
Concerns about Mozilla are mounting. Firefox 4.0 Beta 1 is delayed (even if the first beta candidate build has been released and the second candidate is in a code freeze since yesterday.) Mozilla needs to draw from its best to compete and withstand what appears to be adding up to a new browser war between Microsoft and Google.
Look for our thorough analysis on June browser market share soon.
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