IE suffers security concerns, loses market share

Internet Explorer last month saw its market share drop for the first time this century, according to WebSideStory. Total market share fell by 1 per cent in June.

"It's the first time that we've seen a sustained trend downward for (Microsoft)" said Geoff Johnston, an analyst with WebSideStory. "We have a very steady trend. It's been about a month, and every day we have a steady incremental change."

Internet Explorer has held more than 95 per cent of the browser market since June 2002, and until June had remained steady with about 95.7 per cent of the browser market, according to WebSideStory's measurements. Over the last month, however, its market share has slowly dropped from 95.73 per cent on June 4 to 94.73 per cent on July 6.

A loss of 1 per cent of the market may not mean much to Microsoft, but it translates into a large growth, proportionately, in the number of users running Mozilla and Netscape-based browsers. Mozilla and Netscape's combined market share has increased by 26 per cent, rising from 3.21 per cent of the market in June to 4.05 per cent in July, Johnston said.

"It takes a lot to get someone to change their browser. It's been years since anyone has been willing to do this in significant numbers," he said.

WebSideStory's estimates are based on a daily survey of about 30 million browsers hitting thousands of different Web sites that use the company's Web analytics software, Johnston said.