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[x2p]

Firefox Momentum Slows
By Gregg Keizer
September 28, 2005

Firefox's once-strong surge against Microsoft Internet Explorer is showing signs of losing momentum, a Web metrics firm said Wednesday. San Diego-based WebSideStory released market share numbers for Firefox, IE, and other browsers that noted Firefox has crept up from April's 6.75 percent to September's 7.86 percent, a single percentage point gain in five months.

During the first few months after its November, 2004, release, Firefox was adding another point each month. "It looks like Firefox has hit the push-back point," said Geoff Johnston, an analyst with WebSideStory. "We always knew there was a finite number of early adopters out there and a finite number of Microsoft haters who would switch to something new, but we didn't know what that number was.

It looks like we're approaching it." Last year, there was talk among Mozilla Foundation executives of hitting 10 percent market share by the end of 2005. That's unlikely to happen. "That was doable based on the initial trends," Johnston said, "if those trends had held up. They didn’t."

Internet Explorer's market share as of Friday, Sept. 23, said WebSideStory, was 88.46 percent, just a slight decrease from the 88.86 percent in late April. Much of Firefox's gains, in fact, have come not at IE's expense, but at that of non-Firefox browsers from the Mozilla code (including the Mozilla suite and the stand-alone Netscape), as well as browsers by others, such as Apple's Safari and Opera Software's Opera.

Source:TechWeb

[Neon]

Seems a fair point to me, only so many people are going to want to switch, usually i find beginners end up with Internet Explorer

[Visentinel]

Oh Come on Now, IE is 2 parts, the crappy program MS makes and the Awesome Engine MS also Makes.

All you need is a good interface for the engine, Maxthon provides that and some security to strengthen the IE engine against security risks

I once tried switching to firefox, i tried to enhance it to maxthon standards using plugins, it became slow and buggy, it just cant compete, maybe thats why its takeup is slowing down.

[clarky3429]

its probobly an obvious point that a lot of the IE users are from people installing an OS which it comes with, and they use it because they dont think that there is anything else, so if the OS come with firefox and IE, im sure there would be a more equal balance.... not knocking IE, i think it is an alrite browser, i just prefer firefox for its features and i like the idea, that its made open source - you can even edit thier homepage! lol

[Neon]

Tabbed browsing rules, when your on MSN and the screen is getting locked up and you can't see which window is what...so i think in it's own way, Firefox is a life saver!

[ShadowFox]

I think it's sad to see such a good thing loosing it's momentum though, FirFox is a life saver and has worked wonders... best of all, it's always been free . And Clarky has a good point, if they'd offer variety to the people upon install, those people who aren't aware of this software would probably join in the FireFox fun

[Neon]

I agree with that, though again...NOT everyone does, this is bound to happen

[ShadowFox]

I know, but it's still sad

[Neon]

Who knows, maybe with the next wave of new people using computers and those Silver haired surfers in their late 90's with Nvyseal in the old folks home will start using it?

[ShadowFox]

lol... good description... good description

[Linoman]

You know I am not surprised that Fire Fox has lost momentum. I mean if they are going to continue to try and outdo they have to
Do something different and copywright it so MS or anyone else can not steal the idea. People want more than tabbed browsing

[RedInferno]

IDK, I have always used IE regardless. It does seem like firefox is losing momentum though.

[ShadowFox]

Yeah but Microsoft is just catching on to the tabbed browsing, I kinda preferred it before M$ got to it, now it's just kinda ehh who cares.

Edited by ShadowFox, 30 September 2005 - 11:41 PM.

[Visentinel]

to be honest firefox struggles to keep up with maxthon, and when you try to use plugins to bring firefox up to standard, it crashes and runs very slow.

First things first, the engine needs some optimisation, and Sun Java is slow so Firefox needs its own Java implementation.
Next, Firefox needs to catchup with the feature list, it can learn allot from Maxthon Browser in this area, and Firefox needs to integrate better, so if it uses the favourites folder and supports .url files, even better, and lastly.

Firefox needs a Code overhaul, to weed out all the slowdowns.

Edited by Visentinel, 01 October 2005 - 02:04 AM.

[Neon]

See, his book out and preaching his new-fangled Maxithonian, or maxatopia, whatever you youngters use these days