Processing .....please wait.. 
The article has been forwarded.... 
Firefox crosses one Billion downloads
By siliconindia
|
Monday, 03 August 2009, 14:44 IST
Bangalore: Internet surfers have downloaded the open source Firefox browser more than one billion times, the software's distributor, the Mozilla Foundation, said Friday. The browser is the strongest current rival to Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which once controlled over 90 percent of the browser market but has seen its dominance steadily eroded by Firefox. Firefox now accounts for some 22.5 percent of all active browsers, compared to Microsoft's 65 per cent share, according to the tracking firm Net Applications.
Firefox, which grew out of the now defunct Netscape browser in 2004, reached the 500 million download mark just 17 months ago. Its rapid adoption since then could be further accelerated by Microsoft's decision to offer users a choice of browsers on all PCs sold in the EU to avoid anti-trust problems by regulators there. Last year, the foundation set a new world record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours when the third version of Firefox was downloaded more than 8 million times.
But lest Firefox fans get too carried away with their success, there's another number that shows what Mozilla is up against. According to a source familiar with Microsoft's statistics, Internet Explorer (IE) 8 has been downloaded more than 200 million times in the last four months since its release. That's a fifth of the way to what Firefox achieved since Firefox 1.0 was released nearly five years ago. And Microsoft hasn't even begun pushing IE 8 through update in earnest yet. Microsoft's 200 million statistics doesn't include updates such as bug patches and security fixes.
That's because after years of near-dormancy after IE crushed Netscape in the 1990s, the browser wars are back in full swing. The growing migration of personal and professional activity to Web applications, the growing adoption of broadband Internet connections, and the growing adoption of truly Web-capable mobile phones are combining to make Web browsers a strategic asset in the computing industry. Apple, Microsoft, Mozilla, Google, Opera Software, and others all want to be the gateway to the world's most vibrant medium, the Internet.
"Even the fifth-ranked browser can claim notable success. Opera's desktop browser has been downloaded more than 270 million times from the company's own servers since 2003, and the daily download rate has jumped from 30,000 to 40,000 back then to about 200,000 today," the company said. Throwing Opera Mini for mobile phones into the mix increases the total to about 500 million. The download rates show that there's a powerful movement afoot to 'upgrade the Web', as Mozilla's marketing catchphrase would have it.
