Security matters. That could be the message being sent by Firefox passing the 10 million download mark just over a month since the Mozilla Foundation launched the full version of the open-source browser in November.
But Microsoft, maker of the market-dominating Internet Explorer browser, wasn’t exactly worried when Firefox arrived in full version after months of beta testing. “Because IE is ubiquitous, you hear a lot more about it,” Microsoft security and management product manager Ben English told a security discussion in Australia after Firefox’s release, “but I don’t think that Internet Explorer is any less secure than any other browser out there.”
But Firefox’s early popularity has begun helping Mozilla Foundation bring IE’s market share down to below 90 percent. Web stat site OneStat.com says the actual IE share was 88.9 percent as of the third week of November, falling five points from May, while Mozilla-based browsers including Firefox went up to 7.4 percent – a five point jump.
Microsoft dismisses those figures as not representing corporate users. "It doesn't jibe with what WebSideStory shows,” said director of Windows product management Gary Schare, “and what neither of these count is corporate intranets where users aren't actually hitting the Web."
WebSideStory said Firefox’s share has grown by 35 percent in its first month.
“Firefox’s gains are clearly accelerating,” WebSideStory chief marketing officer Rand Schulman said in a statement. “Much of it has to do with the release of Firefox’s version 1.0 on November 9, after several months of offering a preview version. Firefox’s stated goal of gaining 10 percent of the market over the next year no longer seems unattainable.”
Mozilla Foundation, for their part, could barely contain their glee at passing the 10 million download mark. “If you remember, it took us 10 days to reach 2 million downloads of the Firefox Preview Release,” said a comment on the foundation’s Firefox Web pages. “This time, in only 32 days, we quintupled that number.”
Mozilla is planning a media advertising blitz to capitalize on Firefox’s fast growth.
