Internet Explorer suffers sharp drop in September

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 2 Oct 2009 at 11:24

Internet Explorer's worldwide market share dropped by more than 1.2% in September, its sharpest fall in almost a year.

The Microsoft browser now has 65.8% of the browser market, according to the latest stats from Net Applications, down from 74.2% of the market in September last year.

The figures suggest that this summer's release of Internet Explorer 8 has done nothing to stem the browser's seeping market share, which once boasted more than 90% of the market.

By contrast, all four of Microsoft's next closest rivals recorded modest gains. Firefox increased its market share by 0.8% to reach 23.8%, although it's still recovering from a summer slump of its own.

Safari and Google's Chrome both continue to climb impressively, too. Third-place Safari now stands on 4.2% of the market (up from 2.8% only a year ago), while Chrome has gone from zero to 3.2% of the market over the course of the past year.

The blood-letting will be particularly worrying for Microsoft, given that it has come under renewed attack from its rivals recently. Google is attempting to replace IE's rendering engine with its new Chrome Frame plug-in, while Opera and Mozilla are urging the EU to take an even tougher stance against Microsoft's proposals for dealing with browser antitrust issues. Microsoft is proposing to allow users to choose a rival browser at the point of installation.