Despite bad publicity in recent weeks, Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser continues to dominate the market.
According to statistics gathered by NetApplications, Microsoft's latest release - Internet Explorer 8 - has now become the single most popular browser in the world, roughly a year after its introduction.
Internet Explorer 8 now commands 22.3 per cent of the market, putting it ahead of the once-dominant Internet Explorer 6, whose market share has recently dropped to 20 per cent.
Although Microsoft retains its position as the most popular browser of choice, the threat from rival browsers remains stronger than ever. Indeed, the obvious reasons for the rapid uptake of Internet Explorer 8 may include the launch of Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system, and highly-publicised security concerns that have resulted in Microsoft itself urging users to upgrade from IE6 to IE8.
Despite the seemingly mass migration from older releases of Internet Explorer to IE8, the total browser market share occupied by Microsoft software fell from 68.5 per cent last March to 62.1 per cent early in 2010.
That steady decline can be accredited to the growth of rival browsers from Google, Apple and Mozilla. Internet Explorer 8's biggest challenger - Mozilla Firefox 3.5 - has grown to occupy 17 per cent of the market. Newcomer Google, meanwhile, sees its Chrome browser occupy a total of 5.2 per cent marketshare, putting it ahead of Apple's Safari at 4.51 per cent.
