Windows, IE lose web share to Mac OS X, Linux, Safari, Firefox, iPhone

By Stephen Withers
Monday, 02 June 2008 12:40

Mobility

The trouble with having a huge market share is that the only way to move is down - and that's exactly what's happening to Windows and Internet Explorer, according to an new report. The question is how much further are they going to fall?

According to the latest Market Share report from Net Applications, Windows' share has dropped from 93.28 to 91.13 percent over the last 12 months. What's taking up the slack? Mostly Mac OS, with a little help from the iPhone. The Mac share has risen from 5.99 to 7.83 percent, and the iPhone's from 0.04 to 0.16 percent - but more of that later.

Linux has scored the biggest proportional improvement over the period, but the growth is coming off such a low base that it is hardly significant.

Growing from 0.46 to 0.68 percent is an achievement, but look at it this way: Windows zealots often describe Mac OS X as irrelevant due to its comparatively small number of users, but on the Net Applications figures Linux is a further order of magnitude behind.

When we look at browser shares, Microsoft is doing even worse with the Market Share report noting a drop from 79.26 to 73.75 percent. Most of that is being soaked up by Firefox, which has gone from 14.45 to 18.41 percent. Safari also has picked up share, rising from 4.58 to 6.25 percent.

No other browser manages to crack the one percent threshold. While Opera last year supplanted Netscape as the fourth force in browsers, it is a long way behind the big three. That said, Opera Mini is responsible for around two and a half times the traffic of Pocket Internet Explorer.

So what was that about the iPhone?

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