Google Chrome’s marketshare is now within striking distance of Mozilla Firefox while the slow decline of Microsoft Internet Explorer continues, according to new worldwide browser marketshare figures for February 2012.
The figures, compiled by Net Market Share and published by Ars Technica, show that the combined worldwide marketshare (including desktop PCs and mobile devices) for Internet Explorer has fallen to 48.91%, trailed by Firefox (19.35%), Chrome (17.48%) and Safari (9.25%).
In the desktop browser market, the marketshare for the once dominant Internet Explorer has fallen to 52.84%, with an increasingly close battle for second place being fought between Firefox (20.92%) and Chrome (18.90%). Apple’s Safari (5.24%) continues to claim a distant fourth.
However, the situation is very different in the mobile device market where Safari claims 61.19% marketshare, due to the strength of iOS devices such as the iPhone and iPad. This is well ahead of the Android Browser on 18.62% and Opera Mini on 14.42%. Meanwhile, the marketshare for Research in Motion’s BlackBerry browser has dwindled to just 1.72%.
Andrew Sadauskas is a former journalist at SmartCompany and a former editor of TechCompany.
