Internet Explorer lost 20% market share in the last 2 years

Worlds most famous browser is on a steady decline in India if one believes
the data and reports generated by StatCounter, NetApplications, and several
other sources. Reports from StatCounter suggest that IE lost almost 20% market
share in India in the past two years. The reports also suggest that IE has lost
a major chunk of the share globally too. Other Internet browsers that have
picked up pace in India as well as globally have been Google Chrome, Mozilla
Firefox, and Safari.

Reasons for Decline

The numbers are getting worse for Microsofts Internet Explorer month after
month. Some major reasons for the decline have been routed to IEs exposure to
security vulnerabilities and its inability to regularly come up with upgrades. A
security flaw revealed few months back by Microsoft affected IE6, IE7, and IE8
on Windows XP as well as IE7 and IE8 on Vista and Windows 7 if the protected
mode has been disabled (though protected mode is turned on by default). The flaw
would allow a hacker to access any file on the system by forcing IE to
incorrectly render data from local files, exposing it to outside parties.

Secondly, other browsers have regularly upgraded features and have done
add-ons making it more user friendly; while IE has gone slow on regular
upgradation. Microsofts Internet Explorer (IE) web browser now accounts for
less than 60% of the market, down from 95% when it was at its peak in 2003,
according to new figures. Apple remains a key rival for Microsoft in the browser
market as it has seen its Safari browser gain good market share. Interestingly,
the two rivals have also come together when it comes to supporting the HTML5 web
standards.

Conclusion

Internet Explorer has certainly lost a chunk of its market share to its
competitors due to the factors mentioned above. The competition is going to be
more tough in the coming years as by 2011, many more mobile browsers are also
entering the battlefield and going to gain market share. Thus, only a change in
the right direction can help IE gain more share in the market.

PC Suraj

surajp@cybermedia.co.in