Chrome and Safari continue to gain share of worldwide usage while IE and Firefox continue to lose. Note that statistics shifted in February 2011 a little because of updated population figures changed how much some countries were weighted. (Credit: Data from Net Applications; chart by Stephen Shankland/CNET) Despite arriving a week later, Firefox 4 is outpacing Internet Explorer 9 in real-world use so far, new statistics show.
Microsoft released IE9 on March 14, and Mozilla's Firefox 4 arrived on March 22--both brand-new even by the fast-moving standards of today's software market. By month's end, IE9 accounted for 1.0 percent of browsing activity worldwide, according to statistics from analytics firm Net Applications. Firefox 4, though, reached 1.7 percent, despite its later start.
Firefox 4 has a big advantage in usage statistics over IE9: Windows XP. Mozilla's browser works on the decade-old operating system, but IE9 requires Windows Vista SP2 or Windows 7. Given that Windows XP machines represent 54.4 percent of the usage on the Internet right now to Windows 7's 24.2 percent and Vista's 10.6 percent, Windows XP is a big ally even if the growth is with Windows 7.
Source: CNET
