To All:Popularity of Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 Pushes Netscape to an All-Time Low
March 27, 2002 07:02:00 AM ET
IE 6 Soars Above 30% Global Browser Usage Share in Seven Months; Netscape's Share Drops Nearly in Half
SAN DIEGO, March 27 /PRNewswire/ -- WebSideStory, Inc. ( www.websidestory.com ), the world's leading provider of outsourced e-business intelligence services, today reported that Microsoft MSFT Internet Explorer 6 has captured the number two spot among browser versions behind Internet Explorer 5, and is taking significant market share from Netscape. As of March 25, 2002, IE 6's global browser usage share was 30.5 percent, up from 2.4 percent shortly after its initial launch only seven months ago, according to WebSideStory's StatMarket ( www.statmarket.com ), a leading source for data on global Internet user trends. Meanwhile, Netscape's global usage share has sharply declined. Netscape held steady with about a 12 percent global usage share for more than a year, until the release of IE6, at which point it began dropping precipitously. Netscape's global usage share is currently just over 7 percent. Global browser usage share is the percentage of daily Internet users worldwide that access the Internet through a particular browser.
"The fast adoption rate for IE 6 has been a definite threat to Netscape's usage share," said Geoff Johnston, vice president of product marketing for StatMarket. "Although it looked originally as though Netscape had an entrenched core user base, IE6 has managed to take significant market share. It's do or die time now for Netscape."
The growth of IE 6 aside, Netscape may be getting some help. According to recent reports, Netscape's parent company AOL Time Warner AOL is considering converting its privately labeled IE browsers to Netscape browsers. With AOL's global usage share among ISPs currently at 13.12 percent, this move could cause a shift in the browser war.
"Netscape 6 seems to be a stronger product than some of the company's earlier release versions, according to its users," Johnston said. "If AOL takes this step and Netscape continues to strengthen its browser, we could see another battle in the browser war."
StatMarket ( www.statmarket.com ) is a Web site design and software optimization service that publishes valuable usage share data for browser versions, operating systems, plug-ins and more. The information is gathered from more than 50 million Internet users a day visiting more than 125,000 sites worldwide using WebSideStory's HitBox(R) Enterprise ( www.hitboxenterprise.com ), HitBox Commerce ( www.hitboxcommerce.com ), and other HitBox e-business intelligence services. StatMarket segments information from visitors in 245 countries and 120 categories. |
