According to analysts surveyed by Information Week, however, the Microsoft blog didn't paint the entire picture. An analyst at WebSideStory, the firm whose numbers were used by Microsoft, confirmed that IE7 was actually taking market share exclusively from IE6.

Another analyst at web metrics firm Net Applications said that according to the firm's numbers the combined share in the US of the two Microsoft browsers in December 2006 had dropped 1% from November to 79.6%. Meanwhile, over the same period, Firefox browser share, comprising versions 1.5 and 2.0 had risen from 13.5% to 14%.

What's more, the US has been relatively conservative in its adoption of Firefox compared to some European countries and Australia. In Germany, Firefox market share actually rivals that of Internet Explorer. In a world where Web 2.0 applications are becoming increasingly important to the detriment of the desktop, that spells bad news for Microsoft.{moscomment}