According to recently published data from StatCounter, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is showing signs of losing the browser battle in Australia. IE’s Australian share of the browser market has fallen for the first time below the 50% mark, an unprecedented event.
In the space of a year, IE's market share in Australia plummeted from 54.31% to 49.78%. Advances made by Firefox in the last few years combined with heavy adoption of Google’s Chrome and Safari in more recent months has led to this decline. StatCounter’s data suggests that Chrome’s market share has more than doubled from 4.8% to 10.58% in the last year alone, with Safari’s growth slightly more mundane growing to 9.41% from 6.87% in the same time period.
The battle of the browsers is heating up, which in our eyes is terrific news as it promotes innovative thinking and further product development. Firefox and Chrome are currently also testing their hardware acceleration solution. We’ll be keeping a close eye on this front and will keep you updated as more news becomes available.
In the meantime, please share your thoughts and experiences with IE9. Do you think Microsoft has hit a home run with a product that delivers what it promises and get back in the game, or is it all just a marketing exercise to slow down the death of IE? Which browser do you prefer and why?