Click here to receive your FREE subscription to Campus Technology
News
Report Finds Dip in Microsoft's Browser Share
8/19/2008
|
|
Microsoft lost browser market share over the last year, and the company's Windows Vista operating system has had "slow" market adoption among individuals and enterprises, according to a report issued by management consulting firm Janco Associates Inc.
While Microsoft Internet Explorer still leads the pack in terms of browser use, its market share dipped from 65 percent in August 2007 to 58 percent in August 2008 -- a seven percentage point loss, according to the report.
Janco's 58 percent market share for Internet Explorer is much lower than the share reported in Net Application's Market Share report, which indicated that IE had a 76 percent market share in August of 2008.
The next runner up in the browser wars, according to Janco's report, is the No. 2 Firefox browser. Its market share grew by 3 percentage points year-over-year -- from 16 percent to 19 percent.
People continue to use the Netscape browser, which grew 1.6 percent year-over-year to hit an 11.6 percent market share. The report chided Time Warner for giving up on the browser.
"Time Warner's short-sighted decision to abandon Netscape shows technology decisions are long-term ones and companies that want to create value in that market need to look beyond quarter-to-quarter earnings," stated Janco's CEO, Victor Janulaitis.
He added that the bigger lesson of the report is the "continued erosion of Microsoft's market share," in which the company can't rely anymore on quickly moving users to new products.
The report put the market share for Vista at just under 15 percent in August 2008. In 2007, Vista had a near one percent market share. While the report characterizes that growth as slow, Microsoft execs have typically claimed that the Vista adoption rate has historically outpaced that of Windows XP.
An enterprise survey conducted by Forrester Research found Vista's adoption to be lower than Janco's figure. Forrester's survey found an 8.8 percent adoption of Vista by June 2008.
Janco's press release did not indicate the number of users sampled for the study. However, the company's Web site states that the data for the report are based on "international accesses for business to business Internet users" and about half of the responses came from the United States.
For more info, or to purchase Janco's report, "Browser and OS Market Share White Paper," go here.
Kurt Mackie is online news editor, Enterprise Group, at 1105 Media Inc. You can contact Kurt at kmackie@1105media.com.
Cite this Site
copy text (above) for proper citation
Recommended Reading
- UNLV Hospitality Students Learn on Micros Opera
The William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) has received a donation from Micros Systems that will allow the college's students to use its Opera hospitality software in classes.
- Cambridge Reduces Support Needs in Move to New Wireless System
The University of Cambridge is deploying Aruba Networks' wireless LAN equipment to replace a legacy network that had become unmanageable and a drain on resources. Since early 2008, about 100 Aruba AP-65 access points have been deployed, along with dual MMC-6000 Multi-Service Mobility Controllers.
- iKnow Social Learning Platform Expands Language Support
Cerego has released new content creation tools for its iKnow social learning platform, adding support for creating learning modules in any of 188 languages. The company has also expanded language support for the text-to-speech technology used in the iKnow platform.
- Smart Debuts Updated Whiteboard Lineup
Smart Technologies last week unveiled updates to its Smart Board 600i interactive whiteboard system. The new lineup includes both a standard 4:3 and a widescreen 16:10 model, each featuring new boom-mounted, short-throw projectors.
- SUNY's Binghamton Monitors Network with Lancope's StealthWatch
Binghamton University, part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system, is using StealthWatch from Lancope to help streamline network management, control, and security with visibility of network behavior. Binghamton has an IT network that spans 20,000 client endpoints and six geographic locations. After contending with worm propagation and other security threats that affected network performance, the university's network management team sought a way to increase visibility of network traffic and analyze network behavior for potential threats.
- Tufts Grants Rights for Mileage-Increasing Transportation Technology to Electric Truck
Tufts University has optioned rights to a technology that can recharge the batteries of any hybrid electric and electric-powered vehicle while it is driven. The Tufts-developed technology could increase by 20 percent to 70 percent the miles per gallon or total driving range performance of vehicles like the Honda Civic, Ford Escape, and Toyota Prius hybrids and the Tesla Motors and Phoenix Motorcars electric vehicles.
