The open source browser from Mozilla is eroding Microsoft's dominance over the browser market with each passing day. Firefox usage is as high as 40% across Europe and IE's dominance is coming to an end. According to data made public by XiTi Monitor, a Web analytics company based in France, Firefox 2.0 is closing in at 25% of the European browser market. XiTi Monitor revealed that Firefox has gained over 5 points of usage rate in just a single year.

“Slovenia still leads the European countries with its use rate rising significantly: 44.5% for the week of March 5 to 11, 2007, i.e. +4 points versus the week of November 20 to 26, 2006. Finland maintains its second place (+2 points) and Croatia comes in third with a rate of 36.5% (+3.7 points), followed by Germany and Slovakia,” stated XiTi Monitor.

Firefox has increased its hold on the European market from 19.4% in April 2006 to 24.1% in March 2007. The web analytics company illustrated that the release of Firefox 2.0 at the end of October 2007, in the context of Microsoft's already launched Internet Explorer 7, helped Mozilla increase the use rate of the open source browser from 23.2% to 24.1 %.

“The Czech Republic achieved the greatest increase in points: from 26.7% to 31.5% (i.e. +4.8 points for Firefox’ use rate), and as a percentage: +18%. Among the 30 European countries studied below, the rate of five decreased in relation to November 2006: Hungary (–3.9 points), Denmark (-1.7 points), Estonia (-1 point), Holland (-0.7 point) and Italy (-0.5 point),” XiTi Monitor added.

As far as Europe is concerned, Firefox is gaining ground on all markets except Estonia, Hungary, Italy, Denmark and The Netherlands. XiTi Monitor approximates a global share of 16.8% for Firefox and 78.5% for Internet Explorer.