State of the Browser Market - Firefox Hits 20%

Firefox has exceeded a 20% market share according to Net Applications. The survey is primarily focused on the US browser market. Firefox appears stronger in Europe and a recent survey by Xiti Monitor of France pegged its market share to just over 30% in Europe. The trend is clear and it's even more pronounced in certain segments such as the web tech crowd using the W3Schools resources. The site has tracked browser statistics of its users since 2002 and Internet Explorer's started with a 85% share but this number has been decimated to 47% in November 2008.

Let's examine the competition between Firefox and Internet Explorer by looking at the value proposition of Firefox. Firefox offers rich functionality provided by the large number of available extensions (add-ons). This is a very successful way to leverage the community based nature of Firefox/Mozilla and it's difficult for Microsoft to replicate. Security is another aspect. Firefox has not stayed clear of security issues but the problems have not been on the same level as with Explorer. The recent vulnerability in December 2008 affecting all versions of Explorer was one of those very bad vulnerabilities putting the system of the user in jeopardy.

Microsoft has two major advantages - a fundamental lock on the enterprise browser market and the ability to integrate the browser with other products such as the Windows OS and specific applications. However, it's apparent that the company has been unable to use the latter to its advantage without getting in trouble with regulators or creating security problems. But the company still has time for a turn-around considering it claims 60-70% of the overall browser market.

There are also some smaller players in the browser market such as Apple's Safari, Opera, and the most recent addition - Chrome from Google. These browsers are not in any way serious competitors in overall market share but they change the landscape by reinforcing that the web is not a single browser environment. Safari and Chrome may actually not primarily aim at maximize its market share in the short run but create a narrow and specialized market around products such as, in the case with Apple, related to iTunes and iPhone. Nevertheless, the benefactor in the browser war at this juncture is definately Firefox.