[thelist] Explorer market share down in 2003?

[Nate Koechley]

Hey PPK,

I saw what you saw too. Looking at my numbers I saw a slight drop in
IE #'s in late Q203/earlyQ303, with Gecko gaining ground. (I saw gecko
pass nn4 in mid Q203). The dip in IE was largely regained throughout
Q4. Current numbers show Gecko still in front of NN. IE is still
leading, but is off it's high by about 2 pts.

I concur that IE is loosing it's ground slightly, although the drain
seems to have slowed in the 2nd half of 03.

I agree with your caution regarding Upsdell's comments. 

I've been noticing a large upswing in various robots and crawlers.
Sometimes up to a sixth or seventh of total traffic. How this activity
is measured may effect all other numbers, and probably largely
accounts for the differences between reports.

In summary:
- Gecko gaining the "other" segment.
- IE down off it's peak, but still up YoY.
- More diversification of fringe useragents.
- Significant increase in non-human activity.


Cheers
nate


-----Original Message-----
From: thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org
[mailto:thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org] On Behalf Of Peter-Paul Koch
Sent: Friday, January 30, 2004 5:29 AM
To: thelist at lists.evolt.org
Subject: [thelist] Explorer market share down in 2003?



Hello,

While studying the browser stats that I happen to have available, it
seemed 
to me that Explorer has lost a bit of market share in 2003. I wondered
if 
anyone had seen the same trend, or the reverse.

In an interview in the Singapore Straits Times (now unfortunately
offline), 
browser expert Charles Upsdell was quoted saying he thought Explorer
had 
lost about 5% of the market. I myself am more cautious and
conservative, and 
would settle for 1 to 2%.

The matter goes beyond a simple browser market share adjustment, since
this 
would be the first year ever that Explorer loses market share instead
of 
gaining it. Therefore I'd like to have second, third and fourth
opinions 
before Officially Proclaiming that Explorer is losing ground.

Comments anyone?

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ppk, freelance web developer
Interaction, copywriting, JavaScript, integration
http://www.quirksmode.org/ Column "Keep it Simple":
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