Microsoft’s dominance in the OS market led to Internet Explorer being the most used desktop Web browser, but that’s starting to change. Yes,  Internet Explorer is still the undisputed champ at 45.83% market share, but that number has been in steady decline for years.

In fact, since  2008, IE’s share has plummeted from 67.92% to its current state. Mozilla’s Firefox has been creeping up on IE for years and now stands at  30.62% market share, but Google’s Chrome browser has steadily and quickly gained ground since its launch in late 2008; Chrome now claims  15.9% market share.

Apple’s Safari comes in fourth at 5.1%, and Opera, whose growth seems fairly stagnant over the last few years, rounds out  the top five at 2% market share. Other than Safari, IE’s competitors have one thing in common: they’re all open-source Web browsers. Lumped  together, Firefox, Chrome, and Opera occupy 48.52% of the desktop browser market, which puts them on even footing with IE’s 45.83%. (Perhaps befitting its parent company’s role in tech these days, Safari disrupts things a bit.

Without Safari, opensource browsers claim a bigger chunk of the market than  proprietary ones; with Safari’s numbers included, the proprietary browsers still claim the majority share, albeit not by much.) Regardless, one can clearly see the direction the browser market is heading.

Source: Dazzle Nuts