Is Microsoft’s Internet Explorer doomed? If so, Steve Jobs is partly to blame

14 years ago

“New data suggests that Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is still losing market share, primarily to the open-source Firefox browser,” Tim Beyers writes for The Motley Fool.

“StatCounter, an analytics firm, says that Firefox’s share of the browser market now stands at 32.06%, up almost seven percentage points from last November. Internet Explorer’s share fell more than 12 percentage points over the same period,” Beyers writes. “Firefox isn’t the only winner here. Apple’s Safari made modest gains [2.49% in Nov. ’08 to 3.67% in Nov. ’09], and Google’s Chrome browser gained almost as much as Firefox did — up to 5.34% from 0.93% last November.”

MacDailyNews Note: StatCounter’s reports Mobile Browser use separately. Apple’s Mobile Safari (iPhone+iPod touch) is #1 with 31.70%. See figures for other mobile browsers below.

Beyers continues, “Blame it on Steve Jobs. We don’t know precisely why IE is losing share, but Macs could be part of the problem. Apple has gained share from smaller PC market rivals this year, and it’s putting pressure on leaders Dell and Hewlett-Packard in the process. Macs don’t use IE. They haven’t for years. Each user that switches from PC to Mac also switches from IE to … something else.”

“Serious Mac addicts will tell you that Safari is the platform’s best browser. It certainly performs well enough on my aging MacBook Pro. But it also isn’t my primary choice. Firefox is, because it’s both browser and platform… Safari doesn’t dabble in plug-ins and extensions the way that Firefox does,” Beyers writes.

“Microsoft investors have reason to worry,” Beyers writes. “This is a war, and it’s being fought in the browser. The most functional environment for cloud computing will win this conflict.”