Firefox Gains Market Share

For the first time ever, Mozilla’s Firefox has held 20% of the Internet browser market over an entire month. This is bad news for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, which lost 1.5 points over the previous month, and 5.8 points over the year. Firefox isn’t the only browser that has stolen market share from Internet Explorer, however. Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome also gained market share.

Firefox has touched upon 20% market share for some time now, but hasn’t been able to hold that share over the course of an entire month. Chrome also hit a new record, perhaps in part thanks to Google’s rapid and automated update cycle for the browser.

If you look at the history of it all, Firefox has gained about 10% market share every two years. (B y mid 2007, Firefox held an estimated 15% market share.) Also, Firefox holds substantially higher market share numbers in certain regions of the world, particularly in Europe, where it holds an estimated 40% share. Firefox also holds an estimated 30% share in the U.S. market.