According to a survey conducted by NetApplications, over the past year, the web browsers Safari and Firefox have continued to gradually capture market share from Internet Explorer.
Last year, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer remained the dominant browser, far exceeding its competitors with a market share of 85.05%. However, this figure has significantly decreased from 90.31% in 2004.
Firefox ended 2005 with nearly 4.64% of the total market share, an increase of nearly 10% compared to the previous year. NetApplications reported that this open-source browser experienced considerable growth early in the year but saw a decline during the summer months. By the end of the year, with the release of Firefox 1.5, the company experienced strong growth in market share once again.
Meanwhile, Safari is the only browser that saw a consistent monthly increase in market share. At the end of 2004, Safari’s market share was just 1.56%, but by the end of 2005, it surpassed Netscape to claim the third position with a market share of 3.07%.
Netscape fell to fourth place with a market share of 1.24%, while Opera maintained a market share of 0.55%, the same as in 2004. NetApplications predicts that as the number of internet users accessing the web through mobile devices increases, the market share of these browsers will also grow.
The data from NetApplications was collected from the websites of medium and small enterprises using the company’s statistical software. The company reported that the number of surveyed businesses stands at 40,000 and is still on the rise.
