Firefox Growth, Internet Explorer Decline Driven By Windows Users, Not Linux

It seems that Firefox’s success can be attributed to that of Window’s users and not so much by other OS’. Bet you did not see that one coming, huh?

Some memes die hard. Along with the persistent claim that the popular Firefox browser platform is only for Windows-haters, we often see the comment that simply downloading something… even 100 million-plus of something… doesn’t mean people are using it. In fact, Firefox’s Mary Colvig says they believe 40 to 60 million people are actually using it.

Nevertheless, something appears to be happening.

Market trackers claim that Internet Explorer’s “share peaked in 2002 at 95%, while Mozilla-cum-Firefox variants (Firefox) grew from 4% in 2002 to 11% in 2006.

As we’ve noted before, the growth of Firefox usage among Email Battles readers has been more dramatic, swelling from 8% in 2004 to 58% in 2006 (January vs January).

Lest you conclude the growth in Firefox was strictly due to Linux-BSD users…

During the same period, the number of visitors to Email Battles who were not using Windows grew from 4% to 26%, leaving Windows with 74% of our traffic. Source: Email Battles

[tags]internet explorer,firefox growth,browser platform,email battles[/tags]