This is the very first time when Internet Explorer lost its leading position

Jun 7, 2014 06:09 GMT  ·  By

Internet Explorer is or is not the world's leading browser depending on the market researcher you ask, but as far as Adobe is concerned, Microsoft's very own application is no longer number one in the United States.

Data provided by Adobe Digital Index (ADI) shows that Google Chrome has managed to overtake Internet Explorer in the United States for the first time in history, as more users are moving from Microsoft's browser to alternative software.

At this point, Google Chrome has a market share of 31.8 percent, which marks a growth of 6 percent year-over-year, while Internet Explorer is installed on 30.9 percent of the devices in the US, down 6 percent. Safari is third with 25 percent, while Firefox comes next with 8.7 percent.

There's one essential point that needs to be taken into consideration when analyzing these figures. ADI data combines desktop and tablet market shares, so Android devices have obviously played a decisive role in Chrome's mission to overtake Internet Explorer in the United States.

With Android currently leading the tablet market and Microsoft still struggling to compete with its rivals on this particular side of the industry, it was just a matter of time until Chrome became number one. And still, as far as the desktop is concerned, Internet Explorer continues to lead the pack according to some other market share analysts.

Adobe says that it looked at nearly 17 billion visits to 10,000 US-based websites in April 2014 to determine the market share of each browser, so figures are very likely to be accurate, it guarantees.

So why is Internet Explorer losing ground so fast? Adobe's analysts say that it's all because of the default browser configured on the device that the company sells. Microsoft is yet to step in the mobile browser race, so this is where Google actually managed to gain all the lost points on the desktop.

“First, device defaults matter,” ADI Technology Analyst Tyler White said. “Internet Explorer leverages its Windows OS dominance to gain share as the default Web browser for the majority of people online. Today mobile OS is more important, giving Google and Apple a leg up with default status on Android and iOS.”

Looking at the market share of mobile browsers proves that this is the area where Microsoft clearly needs to improve fast. At this point, Safari Mobile leads the pack with 59.1 percent thanks to the dominance of the iPad, followed by Android browser with 20.3 percent and Chrome Mobile with 14.3 percent. Internet Explorer Mobile is only far behind with 1.8 percent.

On the desktop, IE is number one with 43.3 percent in the United States, followed by Chrome with 30.6 percent. Firefox is third with 12.5 percent, while Safari comes next with 10.3 percent.