Chrome and Firefox Slip; Internet Explorer Gains for January 2012

We are always interested here in the browser wars, they go up and down like the economy. Last month we reported that Chrome appeared to be gaining market share at the expense of Firefox and Internet Explorer.

This past month Chrome actually slipped to 18.9 percent market share while Firefox continues to slip dropping a full percentage point to 20.9 percent. In the “worth a mention” department Safari also slipped to 4.9 percent, most likely in line with Apples share of the computer market.

This leaves the reigning champ, Internet Explorer, showing an increase to 53 percent up from 51.9 percent in January.
It seems that the browser wars have slowed down but we look forward to seeing how the rest of the year plays out. Chrome has enjoyed a huge growth spurt in the past year that we assume comes from taking share from Firefox whose latest version of their browser just seems slower and more bloated than the earlier 3x versions. Firefox has been steadily declining as the days of Firefox versus Internet Explorer have come to an end with lots of new choices in browsers.

Is Chrome the new Firefox? Will Internet Explorer continue to dominate with 50 percent or more this year? Only time will tell and it will be an interesting ride.

Here are the numbers from NetMarketShare:

Desktop Browser Market Share:

Microsoft Internet Explorer 52.96%
Firefox 20.88%
Chrome 18.94%
Safari 4.90%
Opera 1.67%

Proprietary or Undetectable 0.50%

Mozilla 0.03%
Flock 0.02%
ACCESS NetFront 0.01%
Android Browser 0.01%
Obigo 0.00%
Konqueror 0.00%