NetApplications, a provider of Web-based applications that measure, monitor and market Web sites for the Small to Medium Enterprise (SME), today announced its monthly Web site traffic analysis. In September, Netscape Navigator and Apple’s Safari continued their modest gains for the second straight month, while FireFox lost market share for the second time in 2005.

Internet Explorer enjoyed a slight increase at FireFox’s expense growing from 86.31% in August to 86.87. FireFox dropped 8.27% to 7.55%. Safari checked in at 2.39% up from 2.20% and Netscape usage grew from 2.02% to 2.16%.

“Opera made news last month when it announced that it will offer its browser for free, without advertising in what appeared to be a response to the wild adoption rate of FireFox,” Vince Vizzaccaro, executive vice president of marketing and strategic relationships for NetApplications in the press release. “FireFox, Safari, Netscape and now Opera are jockeying for position and implementing aggressive marketing maneuvers which is setting the stage for a very exciting month in October and throughout the remainder of 2005.”

September Browser Market Share:
• Microsoft Internet Explorer – 86.87%
• FireFox – 7.55%
• Safari – 2.39%
• Netscape – 2.16%
• Opera – 0.51%
• Other – 0.51%

August Browser Market Share:
• Microsoft Internet Explorer – 86.31%
• FireFox – 8.27%
• Safari – 2.20%
• Netscape – 2.02%
• Opera – 0.62%
• Mozilla – 0.51%
• Other – 0.08%

Additional stats are available at http://marketshare.hitslink.com.

MacDailyNews Note: These stats are wholly-dependent on the sites chosen to be monitored. Apple’s Safari browser is Mac OS X-only. NetApplications also tracks operating system market share based on a their sampling of sites.

For September 2005:
• Windows XP – 76.36%
• Windows 2000 – 10.69%
• Windows 98 – 5.52%
• Mac OS – 3.74%
• Windows ME – 2.17%
• Windows NT – 0.96%
• Linux – 0.31%
• Windows 95 – 0.14%
• Web TV – 0.04%
• Windows CE – 0.02%
• SunOS sun4u – 0.02%
• PSP – 0.01%
• Unknown – 0.00%

To illustrate the importance of the site sample: MacDailyNews + iPodDailyNews stats by sessions (2,013,089 total sessions) show:

MacDailyNews + iPodDailyNews September 2005 Browser Market Share:
• Safari – 23.98%
• AppleSyndication – 19.67%
• Mozilla Compatible Agent – 14.63%
• Firefox – 10.85%
• Internet Explorer – 7.98%
• NetNewsWire – 7.06%
• MacReporter – 5.90%
• CFNetwork – 1.92%
• (unknown) – 0.73%
• NewsFire – 0.64%

MacDailyNews + iPodDailyNews September 2005 Operating System Market Share:
• Macintosh – 83.35%
 - PPC – 100.00%
 - 68K – ~ 0.0
• Windows – 15.87%
 - XP – 72.29%
 - 2000 – 18.60%
 - 98 – 3.03%
 - Server 2003 – 2.73%
 - NT – 2.57%
 - 95 – 0.39%
 - ME – 0.31%
 - (unknown version) – 0.09%
• Linux – 0.71%
• SunOS – 0.04%
• WebTV – 0.02%
• FreeBSD – 0.02%