Win7 has Yet to Boost Browser, Market Share for MS

There's no doubt that plenty of excitement has built up around Microsoft with less than two weeks since the launch of Windows 7. However, as of yet that hasn't translated to better market share numbers for either its operating systems (OS) or its web browser, Internet Explorer.

Research Concludes 1 Year Study

According to a recent study by research firm Net Applications, Microsoft's share of the browser market continues to decline. Microsoft's piece of the pie got significantly smaller between October 2008 and October of this year, dropping from 73.64 per cent to just 64.64 per cent. Mozilla's Firefox has been there to sweep up the new customers, rising from 19.06 per cent to an impressive 24.07 per cent.

Will Win7 change IE market share? Not necessarily. Although the browser received plenty of hype when it launched on October 22, the buzz hasn't yet translated into increased market share. Net Applications found that the nine days where Windows 7 was available actually marked a decline of Internet traffic share to less than 93 per cent. (Source: htlounge.net)

Who Benefits on IE's Decline?

Windows 7's main competitor these days (aside from Windows XP, of course) is the Mac OS X: it actually climbed to a peak of 5.27 per cent of the total market share during that period.

According to reports, it seems that as people move away from Windows XP, an increasingly dated OS, they're trying out Apple's Mac products rather than new PCs, putting a significant dent in Microsoft's dreams of reclaiming a market scared off by the foul-tasting Vista.

According to Net Applications, the 2.15 per cent growth of Windows Vista was all but offset by a 1 per cent decline represented by users who abandoned Windows XP and took up non-Windows platforms. The decline of Windows' popularity amongst Internet travellers is fast becoming a concern -- the dip represents Microsoft's ninth loss in this area in the past 12 months.

Net Applications is able to monitor the operating systems users employ when they visit its client websites. Although the test field might sound small, it actually represents about 160 million hits per month. (Source: networkworld.com)