After 2013's Q1, Open Source Browsers Maintain Healthy Market Share

Now that we've just completed the first quarter of 2013, the lates Internet browser market share numbers are in, and they continue to show open source browsers faring very well. Net Applications' latest data shows Firefox maintaining greater than 20 percent share, and both Chrome and Firefox grew their share at greater rates than Internet Explorer did between February and March.

Net Applications' data shows the following share numbers for the leading browsers:

Microsoft Internet Explorer 55.83%

Mozilla Firefox 20.21%

Google Chrome 16.45%

Safari 5.31%

Opera 1.74%

Internet Explorer has steadily maintained the lead in browser share, and maintained greater than 50 percent of the market, although its share has been mostly falling for years. As this year began, Internet Explorer picked up a few points of market share due to it being the default browser in Windows 8.

Meanwhile, despite predictions that Google Chrome was poised to eat Firefox's lunch, Mozilla's browser maintains a very loyal following and has healthy share. It is still ahead of Chrome.

Finally, you have to hand it to Opera. As the years pass, it maintains a set of loyal users, even though its overall share is under two percent.