Internet Explorer 8 launch fails to dent Firefox

  • updated 03:25 pm EDT, Fri March 20, 2009
  •         by MacNN Staff

IE8 Launch Stats

The release of Internet Explorer 8 hasn't had any significant impact on Firefox or any other competing browser, data collected by StatsCounter shows. While the final release of IE8 increased its market share slightly on launch day to 1.39 percent, Firefox 3.0 grew more quickly and reached 25.38 percent. The most significant losses were for Internet Explorer 7: the outgoing browser lost 0.4 percent of the total share.

While the new Microsoft browser did gain more significant share by mid-Friday at about 1.56 percent, most of the added users came from users upgrading from IE7 and not converts from other browsers. Other competitors such as Chrome, Opera and Safari continued to see little change in their own share, which hasn't lately exceeded 2 percent.

StatsCounter chief Aodhan Cullen characterized the IE8 launch as "underwhelming" and compared it to the more eager demand for Firefox 3.0. While its share as a beta release was already higher than most competitors, the final release took usage from 7.8 percent to 18.9 percent in 3 days and has seen Firefox 3.0 eclipse IE6 just this month, becoming the first non-Microsoft browser to do so.

IE8 is one of Microsoft's most significant releases but exists partly to address gaps created by more recent rival browsers, such as improved support for true web standards, faster JavaScript, private browsing and support for Mac OS X Dashboard-style web clippings.

Source: StatCounter Global Stats - Browser Version Market Share

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TOTAL_COMMENTS Comments
  1. rvhernandez 03/20, 03:44pm

    MS' majority of market share are the corporate drones. They are not fast to change at all. When was the last time your IT department got you the latest version of anything before at least 6 months have past and the request had been approved by 3 different managers? See, while they love having to tinker with Windows for job security, they hate having anything new pop-up and challenge the norm. I STILL have clients that are browsing the web with IE6! Really! Don't expect big numbers until MS forces everyone to install IE8 wit Windows 7.

  1. malax 03/20, 04:28pm

    IT departments are even slower to update the OS. My company is on the verge of moving to Office 2007 (running on XP of course). Maybe Windows 7 in 2011. That could be the slogan.

  1. chelsel 03/20, 05:01pm

    I don't think you can call the IE8 launch a flop simply because people upgraded from IE7??? Would you call the Firefox 3 launch a flop because people upgraded from Firefox 2?

  1. testudo 03/20, 06:08pm

    People are wising up and not jumping on board the "Gotta have the latest now!" bandwagon.

    Or people are waiting for the weekend to give it a shot.

    Or people didn't even hear anything about it (the only place I saw it was on MacNN).

  1. testudo 03/20, 06:10pm

    such as improved support for true web standards,

    Thank god! I just hate all those browsers supporting those 'false' web standards.

  1. Athens 03/20, 07:16pm

    Been using IE8 final release for a couple days now, all I did was replace IE 6. I never bothered with IE7. But that said the only place I use IE of any kind is at work for Intranet and Active Directory intergration. Rest of the time im using Firefox or Safari on Mac and Windows. IE8 is much improved for IE but im not sold on it yet to replace firefox. Open to it yes but not sold on it yet.

  1. tigran777 03/21, 10:36am

    I couldn't
    believe this when I watch it. But it's true.

    Click here http://kharazyanblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/watch-funny-thing-happened-on-way-to.html Watch a funny thing happened on the way to the moon online

  1. Wiskedjak 03/21, 12:35pm

    While I doubt IE8 will do much, if anything, to Firefox's numbers, a few days of stats are hardly enough to make any pronouncements.

  1. scotte75ky 03/22, 08:35pm

    Not impressive. I moved my Windows based systems at home to Safari a LONG time ago.

  1. nativeNYer 03/23, 03:43pm

    Yeah, I was thinking that too. I don't think IE8 will change the landscape much, but I'm not sure what they could expect since the final version has only been available for a few days. Did they expect people to switch over in droves? Lets see the numbers after a month; that will be more telling.

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