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10 Things That WON'T Happen In 2009

Everybody and his brother has predicted what will happen in 2009. That wasn't good enough for bMighty -- we decided to buck conventional wisdom and tell you about 10 important things that won't happen this year. Don't say we didn't warn you...

Start The Discussion | bMighty Staff | January 07, 2009 07:05 AM

Firefox, Chrome, Safari, And Opera Become More Popular Than IE

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Firefox, Chrome, Safari, And Opera Become More Popular Than IE

What we talk about when we talk about browsers: the imminent demise of IE. But don't hold your breath -- reports of IE's demise have been greatly exaggerated. For every blissful migration to Firefox, Chrome, Safari, or Opera, there are as many as 6 users clinging to IE. The statistics don't lie: IE's market share remains almost 70%.

Now that's not to say there are no signs of erosion, even free fall, to Microsoft's dominance. "Almost 70%" disguises a 10% steep decline over the last year; from December 2007 to December 2008, IE's market share slumped from 78.58% to 68.15% according to Net Applications.

To be sure, the aforementioned browsers-in-waiting are chipping away at Microsoft's lead with Firefox the front runner at 21.35% market share, Safari at 7.93%, Opera at 0.71%, and Johnny-come-lately Chrome at 1.04%. Even if these small cracks in the dominance doubled in size (collectively) they wouldn't catch the market leader -- though some argue there's no browser market to chase. And the upcoming debuts of Opera 10 and IE 8 won't significantly alter the trajectory; even with the current rate of decline, IE won't slip into minority status for another 2 years (given the number of users clinging to IE6, the rate may even slow).

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