NetApplications March share shows IE9 growing fast

Internet Explorer 9's launch was enough to see it carve out a significant piece of the Windows web in its first two weeks. New data from NetApplications for March showed IE9 getting 3.56 percent of Microsoft's web traffic. While small, it was enough to outpace Firefox 4's 2.8 percent.

IE8 now down to 51.57 percent.

Internet Explorer as a whole had dropped, however. Combined, it dropped almost all of a point to 55.92 percent, a new low. Firefox was nearly flat at 21.8 percent, but both Google Chrome and Apple Safari made significant strides, reaching new highs of 11.57 percent and 6.61 percent each.

Windows as a platform was also at a new relative low of 89.58 percent while the Mac was nearly at its high under current revised figures, at 5.25 percent. iOS was up to 1.87 percent under current tracking figures, and Linux recovered slightly from some of its losses.

The results are still early for IE9 but point to the browser so far appealing only to existing Internet Explorer users on Windows rather than bringing in those from competing browsers and operating systems. IE9 is a major step forward for Microsoft with a truly accurate and fast web engine but is partly playing catch-up with features present in rivals' browsers for months or longer.

Browser share within Windows



OS share

By Electronista Staff