Have you ever seen the expression on the face of a kid who has been failing continually and then gets a better percentage, out of the blues? Well Microsoft’s Internet Explorer might paint a similar picture as the browser gained a minute percentage in July.
The fall of IE isn’t a new story and had been happening ever since the advent of Mozilla’s Firefox, specifically. Back in September 2009, IE stood in the browser share market with 65.71% and coming down to 60.32% in June this year with Firefox standing at 23.82%. However it changed in July when the browser’s market share climbed marginally to reach 60.74% while that of Firefox took a dip from 23.81% in June to 22.91%. What the stats mention is obvious that the Internet Explorer has gained in on the shares of Firefox and even Google Chrome which has also taken a plunge from 7.24% to 7.16%. Despite all the recent plunge, the IE continues to be the market leader for various reasons.
I am pretty skeptical about IE, the main reason being that the leading browser was only able to climb to such heights owing to the fact that it started when it was the only web browser. I recall Netscape Navigator, which was one of the worst browsers ever. IE was good until Microsoft axed its own feet by keeping the IE 6 on the web for almost half a decade, there was nothing new coming to it while others in the field kept introducing feature rich browsers. That era of IE6 was exactly that turned off many IE fans and had it not been for big names on the Web like YouTube, etc pulling off support for the IE6. There was of course IE7 which was better at crashing more often, giving an even worse experience to surfers.
I don’t recall when was the last time I actually used the Internet Explorer and why would I if the likes of Firefox, Chrome or even Opera provide me with a rich experience? IE had that trust of users, but it has continually lost it, something which will be hard for it to regain. The other major reason for its massive success and dominance is the fact that it came loaded on all PCs, which had a largest share in the computer market, so its success is rightly credited to the success of Microsoft Windows in my opinion. The current rise shouldn’t be taken a sign of IE’s regeneration, it just a hiccup, one which we will keep witnessing until IE is number two or worst still the number 3 browser.
Stats via Net Applications
Filed under: analysis Tagged: browser, firefox, Internet Explorer, Microsoft, share 
Jean-Baptiste Su is the technology columnist for L’Expansion, the leading business publication in France. He’s also the co-founder and editor of TechPulse 360, a blog at the crossroads of business and technology, exploring the innovation and companies defining the high-tech and clean-tech industries.
Jean-Baptiste started his journalistic career 18 years ago at IDG in France, first as reporter at InfoPC (PC World) and then senior editor at Le Monde Informatique (ComputerWorld). He later joined Decision Informatique, part of Groupe Tests (01 Informatique, 01net.com…) as senior editor, before heading to France’s financial daily newspaper La Tribune as its local Silicon Valley correspondent.
