Internet Explorer 9 falls behind Chrome 10 and Firefox 4

Internet Explorer 9 has been released to high levels of critical acclaim and public feedback has also been strong. Unfortunately for Microsoft, according to NetApplications April browser share data, they are still struggling to get good percentages of adoption.

IE9 doesn't even get into the browser version breakdown chart for all operating systems, taking 2.41 percent. When it is compared to Firefox 4, which launched 7 days later, it grabbed a 5.43 percent usage share. Both of these browsers made their first appearance in March.

This impact will undoubtedly be caused to the limited OS support, as it only runs on Windows 7 and Windows Vista, with older users on XP forced to use another browser. Firefox 4 runs on XP, so their percentage of market share will be higher. IE8 is still doing well however with a 47.54 percent market share.

Chrome 10 launched in March and the Windows 7 adoption rate is impressive, with 14.75 percent take up, meaning it sits in second place behind IE8. Chrome 10 has almost 10 percent of the market when taken across the viewpoint of all operating systems, a very impressive showing for Google's browser.

Microsoft reported 2.35 million IE9 downloads in the first 24 hours, while Firefox 4 reported 6 million downloads in the same time frame. Firefox 4, to date has surpassed 130 million downloads which is a staggering number.

Firefox and Chrome development is moving at an incredible pace, with Chrome 11 beta and Firefox Aurora previews already in the offing. Microsoft also released an IE10 preview for their user base, and it would indicate that the pace of browser releases is getting hard for many people to keep up with.

Chrome 10 has a greater usage share overall on Windows 7 than either Firefox 4 or IE9, although Firefox 4 is showing great increases, from 1.37 percent to 5.43 percent in a single month.

NetApps say “Microsoft seems willing to sacrifice usage share in the short term in order to leapfrog the competition in the long run by applying all their resources to modern versions of Windows.”

KitGuru says: Chrome, Firefox or Internet Explorer, which is your favourite?

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