MOZILLA / NETSCAPE HITS 25 PER CENT MARKET SHARE DOWN UNDER
Ben Jensen 11 August 2006

By Ben Jensen MOZILLA'S FIREFOX and NETSCAPE NAVIGATOR products are now being used by a quarter of visitors to The Cattery, most of whom originate from Australia. Logs of every visitor over the past year show Microsoft's Internet Explorer market share is down to 65%, while Mozilla Firefox makes up just under 20%, and Netscape Navigator just under 5%. Other browsers make up the remaining 10%.

Despite Netscape's flagship Navigator product beginning life with 80% market share, the product did not see out the 20th century. Microsoft launched version 4.0 of Internet Explorer in 1997. It took just twelve months for Netscape to implode; it 'merged' with AOL for some $US 4.2 Billion, in what turned out to be the second worst 'dot.com' deal, after AOL's own 'merger' with Time Warner. But the important bi-product of the Netscape implosion was the creation of the Mozilla Foundation, which slowly set about developing the source code for a new browser.

Mozilla Firefox was finally launched in November 2004. Slowly but surely enthusiasts and then corporations were converted; Firefox is now seen by many as being more secure than Internet Explorer. However without default installation by both computer suppliers and Internet service providers, building further market share will be difficult.

Internet Explorer's share is currently reported at 85% and Firefox just 10%, yet of visitors to The Cattery, the share is just 65% for MSIE and 20% for Firefox. As Professor Julius Sumner Miller used to say: "Why is it so?"

The obvious answer is Geelong supporters are by and large a more intelligent, informed community. Another explanation is that MSIE users are viewing 'cached' versions of the website. Or, it could be that Firefox has made more inroads into Australia than other countries. Indeed, Computerworld reports Firefox is used by a quarter of Aussies and nearly 40% by Krauts (Germans).

Read More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share