Fri Jul 15,11:48 AM ET
Upstart Internet browser Firefox has boosted its global market share to 8.71 percent in June, putting it on the verge of a milestone of 10 percent, a Web-monitoring firm said.
NetApplications said the gains for the open-source Firefox, coming years after Microsoft and its Internet Explorer won the so-called "browser war" against Netscape, signal a new threat to the industry leader.
The figures from NetApplications showed Internet Explorer still held a commanding 86.56 percent of the browser usage last month but that Firefox, a project of the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation, was gaining fast.
"Microsoft continues to lose 0.5 to 1.0 of market share each month, which has been steady throughout 2005," noted Dan Shapero, chief operating officer at NetApplications.
"With its continued momentum, combined with significant media attention, Firefox has steadily increased its user-base each and every month. Firefox is starting to tempt the masses with it strong word of mouth referrals and is expected to gain significant traction once it gains acceptance by large corporations."
NetApplications said that at its current pace, Firefox will soon grab a 10 percent market share, "a significant milestone in its bid to steal thunder away from Microsoft's de-facto industry standard browser, Internet Explorer."
Most other browsers experienced little change during June. Apple's Safari held a 1.93 percent market share while Netscape -- now a part of Time Warner's America Online division, had 1.55 percent maket share and the Opera browser was at 0.59 percent.
The data has been collected from over 40,000 monitored global websites.
Microsoft, by integrating the browser into its Windows operating system crushed Netscape Navigator, which had been the dominant browser in the late 1990s, effectively ending the browser wars at the time.
But some Web users are concerned about the security of Internet Explorer and have been using alternatives.
Other surveys indicate varied results in different countries. WebsideStory said in May that Firefox usage was at 22.58 percent in Germany but only 2.79 percent in Japan.
Upstart Internet browser Firefox has boosted its global market share to 8.71 percent in June, putting it on the verge of a milestone of 10 percent, a Web-monitoring firm said.
NetApplications said the gains for the open-source Firefox, coming years after Microsoft and its Internet Explorer won the so-called "browser war" against Netscape, signal a new threat to the industry leader.
The figures from NetApplications showed Internet Explorer still held a commanding 86.56 percent of the browser usage last month but that Firefox, a project of the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation, was gaining fast.
"Microsoft continues to lose 0.5 to 1.0 of market share each month, which has been steady throughout 2005," noted Dan Shapero, chief operating officer at NetApplications.
"With its continued momentum, combined with significant media attention, Firefox has steadily increased its user-base each and every month. Firefox is starting to tempt the masses with it strong word of mouth referrals and is expected to gain significant traction once it gains acceptance by large corporations."
NetApplications said that at its current pace, Firefox will soon grab a 10 percent market share, "a significant milestone in its bid to steal thunder away from Microsoft's de-facto industry standard browser, Internet Explorer."
Most other browsers experienced little change during June. Apple's Safari held a 1.93 percent market share while Netscape -- now a part of Time Warner's America Online division, had 1.55 percent maket share and the Opera browser was at 0.59 percent.
The data has been collected from over 40,000 monitored global websites.
Microsoft, by integrating the browser into its Windows operating system crushed Netscape Navigator, which had been the dominant browser in the late 1990s, effectively ending the browser wars at the time.
But some Web users are concerned about the security of Internet Explorer and have been using alternatives.
Other surveys indicate varied results in different countries. WebsideStory said in May that Firefox usage was at 22.58 percent in Germany but only 2.79 percent in Japan.
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