Browser Usage Stats Show IE Up, Down

Two different browser statistics companies issued contradictory reports over the past week, highlighting the difficultly in obtaining accurate usage numbers of Internet Explorer and Firefox. But despite their differences, IE6 still holds a commanding share of the market in both surveys.

Net Applications, based in the United States and whose statistics are based on its HitsLink visitor tracking product for Web sites, said that usage of IE6 has fallen to its lowest levels yet: 82.1 percent. That number is down from 83 percent in August, the company reported, adding that Firefox picked up much of the difference.

According to Net Applications, Firefox usage has reached 12.5 percent worldwide, up from 11.8 percent in August and 11.3 percent in July. Apple's Safari Web browser also picked up a few points, moving from 3.2 percent to 3.5 percent usage, according to the survey.

"Internet Explorer continues to lose market share with Firefox and Safari showing a steady increase over the past 9 months," Net Applications said in a statement.

However, Dutch analytics firm OneStat.com offered a contrary report of the market. It claims Internet Explorer reclaimed nearly 3 percentage points worldwide, while Firefox usage has dropped 1.44 percent in the same timeframe. According to OneStat, IE holds 85.85 percent of the global browser market.

OneStat, which uses a random sampling of users to establish its numbers, also reported that Safari usage only reached 1.6 percent worldwide, less than half the number claimed by Net Applications. Although Firefox usage was only 11.5 percent globally by OneStat's count, the alternative browser has been making inroads in the United States, as well as Australia and Germany.

According to OneStat, Firefox now accounts for a whopping 33.42 percent of the browser market in Germany, and 25.55 percent of the market in Australia. Firefox is used by 14.88 percent of Web surfers in the United States, the company claims, and 14.45 percent in Canada.

Both browsers are set to receive a major boost in the coming weeks, as Microsoft prepares to launch IE7 before the end of the month and Mozilla completes testing on Firefox 2.0. The releases are the first major browser upgrades by either vendor in two years.

Still, Microsoft will likely retain the upper hand and even gain market share, as IE7 will be delivered to all Windows XP users through Automatic Updates - although they will be able to opt out of the upgrade. Windows Vista, the next-generation desktop operating system, will also ship with IE7 built-in.