David
5th Aug 2010, 04:26 pm
It's a while since I last published any browser statistics, so here is the current state of play. Can we drop support for IE6 now? Read on.
cadtutor.net (July 2010)
IE8 = 29.5%
IE7 = 14.7%
IE6 = 8.0%
IE5 = 0.1%
Total for IE = 52.3%
FireFox (all versions) = 30.1%
Chrome = 9.8%
Safari = 2.3%
Opera = 2.2%
Netscape = 0.3%
These statistics are based on 510,891 visits during July 2010 so it's a reasonable sample. Bear in mind that this website is a "tech" website and users are more likely to be browser experimenters but it does demonstrate that IE6 is still on the menu for an lot of visitors. :(
However, if we compare with last years stats for the same month:
cadtutor.net (July 2009)
IE8 = 16.5%
IE7 = 25.9%
IE6 = 18.1%
IE5 = 0.2%
Total for IE = 60.7%
FireFox (all versions) = 27.8%
Chrome = 3.5%
Safari = 2.7%
Opera = 2.3%
Netscape = 0.1%
We see a 10% drop in the use of IE6 and this would seem to indicate that by this time next year we may be able to forget about it (my threshold will be 2%). The persistent statistic for IE5 means that it's not going to disappear altogether but it may become insignificant. This drop is consistent with the previous year; IE6 usage was at 27.4% in July 2008 (44.2% in July 2007). It's also interesting to note that IE7 is now less popular than IE6 was 12 months ago. We can only hope that IE9 is so good that no one will want to use an earlier version of IE.
What is significant is the drop in market share for IE overall. This may be something to do with the EU Browser Choice issue but I doubt it. The main beneficiary seems to be Google Chrome (not surprising) and a small boost for FireFox. However, global stats for FireFox seem to indicate a recent fall in market share and Mozilla are likely to be pushing FF4 very hard.
In terms of web design and browser support, not much has changed since last July - we still need to consider IE6 but we can at least see the light at the end of the tunnel.
One point worth mentioning is a note on "progressive enhancement". Almost half of all visitors are now using a browser that can display some CSS3 effects (rounded corners, drop shadows etc.). So it is well worth using these techniques. :)
cadtutor.net (July 2010)
IE8 = 29.5%
IE7 = 14.7%
IE6 = 8.0%
IE5 = 0.1%
Total for IE = 52.3%
FireFox (all versions) = 30.1%
Chrome = 9.8%
Safari = 2.3%
Opera = 2.2%
Netscape = 0.3%
These statistics are based on 510,891 visits during July 2010 so it's a reasonable sample. Bear in mind that this website is a "tech" website and users are more likely to be browser experimenters but it does demonstrate that IE6 is still on the menu for an lot of visitors. :(
However, if we compare with last years stats for the same month:
cadtutor.net (July 2009)
IE8 = 16.5%
IE7 = 25.9%
IE6 = 18.1%
IE5 = 0.2%
Total for IE = 60.7%
FireFox (all versions) = 27.8%
Chrome = 3.5%
Safari = 2.7%
Opera = 2.3%
Netscape = 0.1%
We see a 10% drop in the use of IE6 and this would seem to indicate that by this time next year we may be able to forget about it (my threshold will be 2%). The persistent statistic for IE5 means that it's not going to disappear altogether but it may become insignificant. This drop is consistent with the previous year; IE6 usage was at 27.4% in July 2008 (44.2% in July 2007). It's also interesting to note that IE7 is now less popular than IE6 was 12 months ago. We can only hope that IE9 is so good that no one will want to use an earlier version of IE.
What is significant is the drop in market share for IE overall. This may be something to do with the EU Browser Choice issue but I doubt it. The main beneficiary seems to be Google Chrome (not surprising) and a small boost for FireFox. However, global stats for FireFox seem to indicate a recent fall in market share and Mozilla are likely to be pushing FF4 very hard.
In terms of web design and browser support, not much has changed since last July - we still need to consider IE6 but we can at least see the light at the end of the tunnel.
One point worth mentioning is a note on "progressive enhancement". Almost half of all visitors are now using a browser that can display some CSS3 effects (rounded corners, drop shadows etc.). So it is well worth using these techniques. :)