Didn't know IE usage had dropped so much...

From W3C.

I figured down to 30% or so, not < 15%. I think Google's TV campaign must have helped over the last bit. You rarely see Microsoft TV ads except during the Simpsons and Family Guy on Sundays.

Somehow, I thought Firefox held the highest %.

They're counting stats for W3Schools.com. Hardly surprising that IE usage among devs would be lower than the general population.

Btw, we're starting to see websites utilising some HTML5 features. Not very surprising for non-Win8 users to start looking at the other browser choices.

@DCMonkey: Yeah, that's a good point. They also have a disclaimer towards the bottom:

Note: W3Schools is a website for people with an interest for web technologies.  These people are more interested in using alternative browsers than the average  user.

True enough on the W3C stats. StatCounter shows this for Q12 though, shows IE as higher.

Chrome 34%
IE 33%
Firefox 23%
Safari 7%
Opera 2%
Others 1%

Looks like Firefox and IE are slowly dropping with Chrome growing.

I know I use Chrome at home all the time. It's a bit clunky, but IE9 stopped working for me a year ago out of the blue, so I switched...and I'm someone who thought I'd never switch

37 minutes ago, Harlequin wrote

From W3C.

2012	Internet Explorer	Firefox	Chrome	Safari	Opera
December	14.7 %	31.1 %	46.9 %	4.2 %	2.1 %

I figured down to 30% or so, not < 15%. I think Google's TV campaign must have helped over the last bit. You rarely see Microsoft TV ads except during the Simpsons and Family Guy on Sundays.

Other sources are wildly different; Net Applications, for instance. has IE constantly over 50% and inching up for months. Go figure.

Probably neither is correct, or maybe both are: after all it's an ill-defined problem that doesn't have an unique answer.

All of those are crap when they don't separate legacy browser versions on their data. It sounds harsh, but, anyone who runs IE on XP is going out of their minds because IE on XP is no longer relevant. Anyone who switch to FF and Chrome on XP, would be out of their mind to switch to something different on their new windows based PC, if they haven't switch to Android tablet already. surely the number is skewed, but, so does IE number represented from other sources. I am happy IE9 finally is enough to compete, but, that is not going to stop IE losing its position except retaining itself as a default pre-installed browser. few years later, we will come back talking about Microsoft launching a kill the IE9 websites and still refused to look at IE as a product that needs to be more competitive on multiplatform web world.

The fact that newer versions of IE can't be run on older versions of Windows means that users using those older OS's have to choose another browser if they want to view pages with newer standards.

The newest version of Chrome according to Google support Windows XP SP2+.  The newest version of IE can't even be run on Windows 7.  Google has taken over some market share by supporting Microsoft OS's longer than Microsoft supports itself.  I don't work for Microsoft so I don't know what their real goal is.  I assume that they want users to pay to upgrade their OS so they can use the newest browser (or push them in that direction).  Because of this, the people who don't want to upgrade their OS find current browsers that will support what they have.  Unless MS wants to put IE's newest versions on older OS's they will lose market share on those platforms.

26 minutes ago, magicalclick wrote

All of those are crap when they don't separate legacy browser versions on their data.

Actually, NetMarketshare does provide that type of data.

http://marketshare.hitslink.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=3&qpcustomb=0

IE6 has dwindled to 7% and IE7 would seem to be even less, as it's bundled into the stats for 'Other'. IE8 and IE9 are about the same, each in the mid 20's.

The problem with these stats however is the 'Other' figure of 53% which I would hazard a guess to say is caused by the rapid version changing of Chrome and Firefox. How can you gather stats for a browser version when it changes almost every week?

17 hours ago, jinx101 wrote

The fact that newer versions of IE can't be run on older versions of Windows means that users using those older OS's have to choose another browser if they want to view pages with newer standards.

The newest version of Chrome according to Google support Windows XP SP2+.  The newest version of IE can't even be run on Windows 7.  Google has taken over some market share by supporting Microsoft OS's longer than Microsoft supports itself.  I don't work for Microsoft so I don't know what their real goal is.  I assume that they want users to pay to upgrade their OS so they can use the newest browser (or push them in that direction).  Because of this, the people who don't want to upgrade their OS find current browsers that will support what they have.  Unless MS wants to put IE's newest versions on older OS's they will lose market share on those platforms.

sorry but what do you mean by "  The newest version of IE can't even be run on Windows 7. "

what version is that ?   I am running a build of IE10 on windows 7 right now.  it is a preview build and the final is coming.  works fine for almost all sites I go to.  the problem ones are the ones that for example refuse to see that this is IE10 and not IE 6 /7/8.

@figuerres: Problem is the browser/OS backwards compatibility is lacking for Microsoft, and it's both their own products working together.

XP - Can't run IE9/IE10
Vista - Can't run IE10
Win7 - IE10 Release Preview

The newest Chrome can run on Windows 8/7/Vista/XP.

This is probably why Chrome is growing so much.

1 hour ago, figuerres wrote

*snip*

sorry but what do you mean by "  The newest version of IE can't even be run on Windows 7. "

what version is that ?   I am running a build of IE10 on windows 7 right now.  it is a preview build and the final is coming.  works fine for almost all sites I go to.  the problem ones are the ones that for example refuse to see that this is IE10 and not IE 6 /7/8.

I meant at this time and I don't count the preview because the general population typically doesn't use prelease software (nor should they if they expect it to run at a production release standard).  IE10 is released for Windows 8 but there isn't a RTW version for Windows 7 yet and there won't be one for Vista or XP.  My point is, if you're using XP or Vista and want to use a current browser you have to look elsewhere and because of this IE will bleed market share.

On the topic of IE, every other top tier browser that has a version that supports Windows 8 also supports Windows 7 today, how is Microsoft so far behind with their own browser on their own OS?  These are the contributing common sense reasons why IE is bleeding market share.

2 hours ago, Harlequin wrote

@figuerres: Problem is the browser/OS backwards compatibility is lacking for Microsoft, and it's both their own products working together.

XP - Can't run IE9/IE10
Vista - Can't run IE10
Win7 - IE10 Release Preview

The newest Chrome can run on Windows 8/7/Vista/XP.

This is probably why Chrome is growing so much.

I 100% agree that Microsoft needs to get IE10 running on at least windows vista *MINIMUM*

XP ?  Personally not so sure - but probably they should do it just to keep the bad rep down.

my post was to the "Not able to run on 7"  the OP did not even mention that this is in the works.

so I was just pointing out that you *CAN* run it - yes they need to get it to a general release already.

funny - like I posted a short while back we have feedback but it can also be a complaint ... lol.

ok I will stop now.

w3schools has nothing to do with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

29 minutes ago, ZippyV wrote

w3schools has nothing to do with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

Maybe he created his own acryonym: W3schools.Com.

1 hour ago, figuerres wrote

*snip*

my post was to the "Not able to run on 7"  the OP did not even mention that this is in the works.

You're right, that was my mistake.  Re-reading what I posted initially I wasn't very clear. 

On the IE topic, my organization supports IE, Chrome, FireFox and Safari but IE currently still makes up about 70% of visits on our service sites.  Obviously, we're not representative of the Internet as a whole but there are still pockets were usage stats greatly differ (in all directions).

@jinx101: regardless those exact numbers, I think you delivered your point very clearly. Because ultimately many people are forced to switch when they couldn't upgrade their IE to enjoy the open web. It wouldn't be a problem if there is no competitor supporting the older OS, but, the reality is, there are competitions. and from the developer perspective, I dislike IE for that reason. So now, my fun web cannot run on XP version of IE? What's the point to support IE when I want to support XP users as well? Might as well support FF and Chrome and call it a day. we all know it is not only a XP issue, eventually Win7 will face the same issue as well. To support IE is like supporting a gamming console, instead of something timeless. And from a web perspective, we want timeless.