Firefox Market Share Numbers Vary, But it Appears to Be Tops in Europe
by Sam Dean - Mar. 31, 2009Comments (6)- Related Blog Posts
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Most people are aware that Mozilla's Firefox browser has over 20 percent market share at this point, with the latest data from NetApps showing it at 21.77 percent share. However, not everyone is aware of how dominant the browser has become in certain parts of the world, especially Europe, and it's surprising how skewed browser market share citations get across the many sites that report data. Here are a few different slices on Firefox's market share from various sources, including one showing it as the top browser in Europe. You can pick which one to believe.
This post includes recent browser market share numbers from several sources, where it's interesting how widely the data differs. StatCounter's citation of global market share for Firefox has it at nearly 32 percent--nothing to shake a stick at.
It's also interesting to look at isolated parts of the world. Gemius, the “largest online research agency in Central and Eastern Europe,” reportedly bases its data on over 50 billion page views per month. It cites Firefox 3.x's market share in Poland at over 38 percent, as seen up top here. I also had to laugh at this Mashable post, which discusses Firefox's reported 100 percent market share on one continent: Antarctica. I agree with the author, who says: "I’m guessing the data comes from one user - and he’s using Firefox."
Seriously, though, Firefox has reached some very important market share milestones recently. Notably, StatCounter is now reporting that Firefox 3.0 is the most popular browser in Europe--for the first time (see the weekly share data chart below). Number one in Europe? That's a milestone, and a sign of very healthy browser competition in Europe. If the European Commission's recent efforts to force Microsoft to offer more browser choice in Windows succeed, Firefox may well stay number one.
One Firefox trend that I think is very promising for the browser is that most sophisticated users that I know--as opposed to inexperienced and passive users--choose Firefox. For example, W3Schools tracks statistics on the browsers used by the many visitors to its site, as seen here. The site houses tutorials on web development topics such as CSS and HTML 5, and I would venture a guess that its users are more sophisticated than most. It shows nearly half of visitors to its site using Firefox. There are a lot of different slices on browser market share data, but I think it says a lot that users in the know tend to favor what I happen to consider the best browser.
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