Internet Explorer 8 launch bumps browser's market share 30%
Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) received a small bump in market share Thursday as the company launched the final version mid-day, according to Web measurement company Net Applications Inc.
IE8's market share averaged 1.63% for the day Thursday from noon Eastern time onwards -- when Microsoft posted the new browser for download -- a 21% increase over March's daily average of 1.35% through Wednesday. Net Applications has posted hourly market share numbers for IE8 on its Web site.
The browser's share climbed again Friday, to an hourly average of 1.75% through 11:00 a.m. ET, bringing IE8's total increase to 30% over the month's daily average.
Even with that kind of increase, Vince Vizzaccaro, Net Applications' executive vice president of marketing, was critical of Microsoft's low-key launch. "I was a little surprised that there wasn't any advanced warning," said Vizzaccaro, "and no marketing push from Microsoft about IE8. At the minimum there should have been something for IE users that popped up and said 'there's an upgraded browser available ... download it.'"
IE8's market share climbed above the 1% mark for the first time last month, when it accounted for 1.2% of all browsers used. That boost had been fueled by the last January launch of the browser's release candidate.
By comparison, Google Inc.'s Chrome, which debuted last September, had a 1.15% market share during February, while Mozilla Corp.'s Firefox -- IE's biggest rival -- owned 21.77% of the business.
"Chrome got off to a fast start," said Vizzaccaro, "but it really hasn't moved much since then. And they had a low-key approach when they launched it, too. On the other hand, Mozilla made lots of noise about Firefox 3.0, with a special download day, and they got millions to download it.
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IE8
Tried IE8 but it wouldn't work with Norton 360, actually Norton 360 won't work with IE8. Norton techs had to remove IE8 and reinstall IE7. It is too bad because I liked what I saw and I didn't have the freezeups that I had with 7. Norton 360 had a problem with identity protection and kept giving me a red x. I hope they can resolve this problem quickly.