14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft launched Edge browser with much fanfare in mid-2015 when the company introduced Windows 10, and it continued praising it this summer when it launched the Anniversary Update, which brought several improvements such as support for extensions.
Overall, 2016 was a pretty big year for Microsoft Edge, as it evolved to eventually become a mature browser that can be used as a replacement to Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, coming with a rich feature set and substantially improved stability and reliability.
But this doesn’t mean that Edge actually managed to become a very popular alternative to its more famous rivals, as statistics provided by NetMarketShare show.
In fact, Microsoft Edge really had a hard time keeping up with its competitors, and the browser barely reached 4.76 percent market share for the year.
Google Chrome, the king
Google Chrome leads 2016 statistics with a share of no less than 47.55 percent, which means that nearly one in two PCs is running Chrome for browsing. Internet Explorer, even though it no longer receives improvements, but only security patches, dropped to 31.40 percent, and chances are it will continue declining this year as well.
Firefox has remained consistent throughout the year and got an overall share of 10.06 percent, still more than double compared to the highly-praised Microsoft Edge.
Without a doubt, Microsoft Edge’s adoption was substantially impacted by its limited availability, as it’s currently offered to Windows 10 users exclusively. Microsoft said on several occasions that it has no plans to launch it on a different Windows version or on a non-Windows operating system.
On the other hand, all its rivals, including here Google Chrome and Firefox, are available cross platform and work not only on Windows but also on Linux, macOS, Android, and iOS, so it’s no wonder that they’re more popular.
This year, however, Microsoft is planning on improving Edge browser even more, and the upcoming Creators Update due in the spring will bring substantial enhancements, including new features and support for more extensions. But it goes without saying that it’ll still have a hard time convincing users to switch from Chrome and Firefox.