Microsoft must have thrown a small party in July when Internet Explorer's market share rose for the first time in over a year. The increase wasn't to last though, as the browser has dropped below the 60 per cent mark once again.
In its latest statistics, Net Applications reports that IE's market share fallen to 59.65 per cent - the lowest that it has been for many years. This is a decrease of 0.75 per cent since last month and the first time that its share has been below 60 per cent since May of this year.
Chrome, on the other hand, has continued to show steady growth, now accounting for almost 8 per cent of the browser market. Firefox held steady this month, accounting for just under 23 per cent.
IE's slip comes in spite of the launch of the IE9 beta in the middle of September. The new version received a very warm reception and Microsoft has been beaming over the six million downloads it's gotten since launch. This translates to a 0.34 per cent market share, which isn't too bad for a beta that's only been available for a few weeks. With IE8 also gaining almost a quarter of a point, it was the older versions of the browser that led to this month's decrease. Non-current versions of Internet Explorer lost over 1.1 per cent of the market compared to August, though Microsoft itself has admitted that this is to be expected as users migrate from the legacy browsers.
Meanwhile, mobile browsing continued to grow, now accounting for almost 3 per cent of the market. Obviously iOS still rules the roost, moving up to a 1.18 per cent share, though Android also gained users. Google's mobile OS now accounts for 0.24 per cent of all internet users.
