“Market share trends are interesting reports to watch, as they
are a good forecast of where things are going. Once trends start to
gain momentum, they have a tendency to stay on that path. What has
been interesting is the amount of market share that Microsoft has
been losing in various areas over the past few years. In web
browsers, phones, and even desktop operating systems. The playing
field is starting to level out, which is good for the
consumers.“In the September 2010 report, NetMarketShare shows Microsoft IE
and Windows at record lows within the past several years. The
decline of IE is nothing new. Starting in 2006 with the numerous
problems of Windows Vista, it seems that Firefox gained a lot of
ground and started really making an appearance on the charts, at
the expense of IE. As of September 2010, IE is at 59.65%, Firefox
at 22.96%, Chrome at 7.98%, and the remaining bunch pulling up the
rest. At first I thought IE might make a small recovery with the
launch of Windows 7. However, I think the root cause of IE’s
decline is due to many factors, and users are opting out of using
IE and using other browsers like Firefox and Chrome.”