The latest figures are available from StatCounter which shows how the battle for browser supremacy is shaping up; are people opting for IE8 or Firefox 3.5?
- Globally the picture is fairly clear. The two are currently neck and neck with Firefox just ahead but with a steeper growth curve.
- This picture is similar across Europe except Firefox is opening a clear lead
- The UK is standing alone with a clear vote for IE8. The proportion of people opting for MS’s browser is almost 50% larger than the global and regional norms.
While the decline in IE7 use in the UK has been steeper than elsewhere, it has simply been substituted by people adopting IE8. So what has dampened the rise in Firefox seen elsewhere? One factor seems to be the rise in the use of Google’s Chrome – in the UK Chrome accounts for around 5% of users, albeit around 5% more than seen elsewhere, but this isn’t enough on its own to account for the massive lead Microsoft has opened up. The rest appears to be down to some kind of brand loyalty or lack of technical curiosity.
A straw poll of my colleagues would find almost no IE users – probably equally split between Firefox and Safari with a large slug of Chrome thrown in, but then I’d also find a disproportionate number of Linux and Mac users well so hardly a representative sample of UK computer users. However, does this perhaps indicate that more technically curious and literate people tend to opt for alternative browsers?
Is the final conclusion, therefore, that UK internet users are less curious because they are less confident, feeling safer with a major brand’s browser that came pre-installed on another major brands computer? Let’s hope not!
