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Bobby Travis

This is a post by Bobby Travis, who wrote with me at 40Tech from 2009 through 2012. Bobby has since moved on to bigger and better things, but I've left all of his great contributions up on the site. - Evan

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Internet Explorer has been slowly but steadily losing ground in the “browser wars” since the invention of that little hot little vulpine browser, Firefox. Google Chrome shook up the market even more and is continuing what’s considered to be a fast upward climb. Safari is Safari, and Opera is largely underestimated.

In the article I read about IE’s plummet, on Mashable, the tone was very much in the negative for Internet Explorer, citing phrases such as “to little, to late” and “Hail Mary” in reference to the coming improvements of IE9. Now, I am no fan of Internet Explorer (my web-designer-self hates it with a furious feral fire), and no disrespect intended to the knowledgeable minds over at Mashable, but I think a little bit of perspective may be called for.

Yes, IE has finally hit a downward slide (thank you, powers that be!) — but even with the European ruling that dropped IE from Microsoft Windows installations, and the rise of Google Chrome, Internet Explorer still holds 49.87% of the browser market (as stated in the Mashable article). Another unfortunate truth is that a good percentage of that percentage still uses IE6. The fact that anyone is still using that piece of crap is proof positive that people aren’t as far advanced into the world of technology as we might have hoped. But I digress…

The point I am making here is that 49.87%, while still a hefty drop for IE when compared to the gains of other browsers, is still the largest segment of the market by nearly 20%. Internet Explorer 9 may be a bit late, but it is still going to compete soundly with the other browsers out there. IE9 may not win back Microsoft’s haters (count me in that batch), but it will win back some people — and it will keep even more. If Internet Explorer is going anywhere, I don’t think it will be anytime soon.

What do you think?

With Less than 50% Market Share, IE Is Now Losing the Browser Wars [Mashable]