Jan 03, 2008 - Browser Wars Kill Netscape

The Browser and Operating System Market Share White Paper has just been released by Janco Associates..

Park City, UT – Janco and the IT Productivity Center have just released its Browser and Operating System Market Share White Paper. The major findings are that in the last 12 months Microsoft’s browser market share has continued to erode; Firefox has maintained its number 2 browser position and now is used by almost 16% of all users; Google Desktop is gaining market share; and Netscape is now in a death spiral as users abandon it. New in this white paper are recommendations on which browsers to use and not use. A summary of Janco’s browser market share data can be found on the Janco’s web site (http://www.e-janco.com/browser.php) and the IT Productivity Center’s web site (http://www.itproductivity.org/browser.php). In addition the full white paper with excel spread sheets can be purchased at both sites for $249.

Microsoft Browser Market Share History

The top five browser market share rankings are: 1 - Microsoft’s IE – 66.96%; 2 - Firefox – 15.87%; 3 – Netscape – 8.97%; 4 – Google Desktop – 3.00%; 5 – Mozilla – 1.40%. The CEO of Janco Associates, Inc and the ITPC, M. Victor Janulaitis said: “The positive glow on Firefox was dulled in with the identification of some security gaps in Firefox. But the real story is the continued erosion of Microsoft’s market share.”

Browser Market Share Changes January 2008 to January 2007

	Jan-08		Jan-07		Change
Browser	Rank	Percent	Rank	Percent	Rank	Percent
Internet Explorer	1	66.96%	1	68.77%	0	-1.81%
Firefox	2	15.87%	2	14.28%	0	1.59%
Netscape	3	8.97%	3	11.89%	0	-2.92%
Google Desktop	4	3.00%	6	1.47%	2	1.53%
Mozilla	5	1.34%	5	0.86%	0	0.48%
Safari	6	1.18%	4	1.03%	-2	0.15%
Opera	7	1.16%	7	0.94%	0	0.22%
		98.48%		99.24%

One additional finding in the report is that Microsoft’s new Operating System, Vista now has 9.17% of the OS market share of business and enterprise users who browse the Internet.

Operating Systems Market Share for Internet Users 2008

Janco’s has collected consistent data on browser activity since September 1997. The data is collected from commercial sites that focus on business to business activity. The IT productivity Center anticipates that it will issue an update to it market share data at the end of the fourth quarter of this year.

Janco is Mountain States based consulting firm that publishes the HandiGuide® series of book used by IT, HR and other professionals as the source of information on topics from PC Polices to job positions and responsibilities. In addition to its electronic book and survey publishing, Janco also publishes award winning business software.