[Sigia-l] IE continues to slip

[Boniface Lau]

> From: Listera
>  
> Firefox now enjoys a 6 percent market share, WebSideStory said, up
> from 3.5 percent in June.
> 

The Firefox figure is 3%, not 6%, according to various sources quoting
from WebSideStory. One of them is ZDNet:

    http://news.zdnet.com/2102-9588_22-5435176.html

ZDNet> The percentage of Americans using Mozilla and Firefox, two
ZDNet> open-source browsers funded by the Mozilla Foundation, grew to
ZDNet> 6 percent in October from 5.2 percent in September and 3.5
ZDNet> percent in June. That 6 percent was split evenly between the
ZDNet> two browsers.


However, the following observation is not very encouraging:

ZDNet> Firefox may continue to show gains, but the software could
ZDNet> reach a ceiling, according to WebSideStory's Johnston. Most of
ZDNet> its users are technology-proficient early adopters rather than
ZDNet> average Web surfers. "(Firefox) hasn't gotten to mainstream,"
ZDNet> he said. 


For Firefox to break the ceiling and be a mainstream browser, it needs
a heavyweight's big push such as an AOL endorsement, i.e. moving
millions of AOL subscribers from IE to Firefox. Of course, if and when
a Firefox-based GBrowser is released, it will also be a big help.


Boniface