14 DAY TRIAL // The battle for the top browser worldwide continues, with Internet Explorer not only remaining the number one browser out there, but also managing to increase its market share in the last month of 2014.
A new bunch of statistics provided by Net Applications for the month of December 2014 show that Internet Explorer is currently the number one browser with a share of 59.11 percent, followed by Google Chrome with 22.65 percent, and Mozilla Firefox with 11.91 percent.
While these figures might seem unusual for some, given the fact that there’s such a big distance between Internet Explorer and Google Chrome, it’s worth noting that Microsoft’s in-house app had a really strong performance throughout the entire year and barely dropped below the 58 percent threshold in the 12 months of 2014.
The only two months when Internet Explorer actually experienced a decline were March and April, when it posted a market share of 57.96 percent and 57.88 percent market share, respectively.
Internet Explorer 11 still number one
Version-wise, Internet Explorer 11 continues to be the leading browser on the desktop with 21.79 percent, followed by Internet Explorer 8 with 19.28 percent.
Chrome 39 is third with a share of 12.79 percent, while Internet Explorer 9 and Mozilla Firefox 34 come next with 9.29 percent and 6.18 percent, respectively.
At this point, no less than six different versions of Internet Explorer show up in logs, so it’s no wonder that Microsoft’s in-house browser dominates these charts.
Internet Explorer might be replaced with another browser
Word has it that Microsoft is working to introduce a new browser in Windows 10, so Internet Explorer might after all end up being replaced with this new app.
At this point, sources claim that Microsoft is actually planning to offer the new browser, which is internally called Spartan, alongside Internet Explorer in Windows 10, but there’s no doubt that at some point in the future, IE could disappear completely from the desktop OS.
More details will, however, be provided by Microsoft itself later this month, at a Windows 10 event focused on consumers.
Right now, Windows Insiders can already give a try to the new Trident browser engine that could be part of the new app, but development is still in its very early stages, so many things could change until the final version of Windows 10 gets the green light in late summer or early fall 2015.