So, what’s the main difference between Firefox users and Internet Explorer Users? Many people would point to the tech savviness of their respective users, and they might be right.
While there are varying market share numbers, Janco Associates noted that in August 2008, Internet Explorer’s market share was 58.50%, compared to Firefox’s 18.94%. Back in August 2007, the numbers were 65.48% and 16.30%, respectively.
Meanwhile, on Monday, Hitslink showed IE’s market share to stand at 73.02%, and Firefox’s at 19.22%.
Digging a bit deeper into Firefox’s market share, Matt Asay at CNET looked at the browser usage stats for W3Schools.com, the self-touted “Largest Web Developer’s Site on the Net.” Naturally, the visitors to this site are more tech-savvy than most, which makes the browser usage stats interesting: 52% for IE, 43% for Firefox.
Michael Horowitz, also at CNET, looks at another tech-heavy audience at JavaTester.org and found similar stats: 52% for IE, 32% for Firefox.
He then took a look at an unnamed site “whose audience has no interest in technology” and saw these stats: 62% IE, 26% Firefox.
While these statistics are relatively small compared to the vast pool that is every Internet user on earth, and though the assumptions about the above sites’ audiences may be a bit tenuous, this sheds an interesting light on the browser market. As Horowitz puts it, “It seems that as the technical awareness of the audience decreases, the use of Internet Explorer increases.”
So, it appears that a fairly strong argument can be made about the tech savviness of the Firefox user crowd, but what does this mean for Firefox’s prospects of overtaking IE? Given the leverage Microsoft has with embedding IE into Windows on every PC it finds a home on, Firefox’s chances are slim at best.
If geeks ever became the majority, however, Firefox’s future would be quite bright.
Sources:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10018740-16.html
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13554_3-10018838-33.html
http://www.e-janco.com/press_release20080808Browser.htm
http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=0
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