Browser Update - 3/21/05 : Beleauguered Microsoft Continues Downward Spiral

Disclaimer upfront: The steady incoming stream of visitors looking up "napster and iPod" on Google has increased flow to the site and may have skewed results a bit this month.

The last month has been ugly for Microsoft. Despite the announcement regarding IE7, the users are speaking with their choices. IE continues to lose share to what I will call "OpenSource United." IE is down to 56% share and Mozilla (Firefox and allies) are up to 29%. Shockingly, Safari continues to make a strong showing at 15%.



And the OS breakdown confirms what others have predicted: iPod sales will lift Mac interest and sales. Mac OS X share has increased to an all time high of 20%.



Of course, the same caveats apply as before (see Jan, Feb updates). I have more Mac content than other sites so the results are expected to be skewed. But to the extent that my site used to get 5-7% Mac/Safari hits and 7-10% Mozilla/Firefox hits, these numbers represent a significant and sustained increase in the shares of the respective platforms. Longhorn and IE7 might just come too late for MS.