Is Firefox’s position vulnerable in 2010?

For the last few years, Firefox has been the alternative browser of choice. But could it be running out of steam, wonders Simon Brew…

By Simon Brew, 8 Jan 2010 at 14:30

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This isn’t just something that’s going to impact Firefox, of course, as users will be able to choose from quite a field of options. The fact remains though that it’s the most-known browsers that are likely to be chosen, and that puts Firefox in a prime position. It does, though, open up a window of opportunity for its rivals.

Firefox’s honeymoon period has long since passed, though, and for many years, the browser has been standing on its own two legs. It’s certainly become more bloated over the years, and it’s also found itself against a much improved Internet Explorer than previously. And by the very nature of its own success, it’s trodden a path that others are keen to follow.

But has it peaked? Not yet, but it’s certainly having to work hard for every inch of market share it gains now. Its pace of development and quality of support works in its favour, but at the very least, Google will close the gap on it throughout 2010. Where things will stand in 2011? As Internet Explorer continues to decline, the fight could get very interesting indeed…

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3 comments

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Only time will tell

I doubt we’ll see any real decline in Firefix over the coming months. I currently run three websites for clients, two of which are art related and Firefox users represents about 70% of hits. IE comes in second at around 25% with the remaining 5% shared between the various other browsers and cell phone uses. Surprising to me, are the number of people out there still using IE5.

I do however, have all current browsers loaded for testing purposes, but, my personal favourite is still Opera. I’ve used it since 98 or 99 in its earliest pay-for incantation. Firefox is my second choice with Chrome coming in third.

I don’t like the feel of recent versions of Internet Explorer, and I don’t like Safari at all. Safari I feel should be put to rest. Its not the most stable browser on my PC but its dreadful on my Mac. I only tolerate it now for testing purposes.

Chrome I feel is the real wild card. Although right now I think it has an almost child-like feel. Though, It is backed by Google’s might, and unlike Microsoft who have years of bad IE press to contend with, Chrome doesn’t, thus portrays a degree of competence. But only time will tell.

By dogsoldier on Tuesday Jan 12

RE:

We forget that at one time, Netscape enjoyed the dominance IE once did - and it was actually only round the mid-90s that Windows became dominant (IBM's OS/2 looked a good candidate to replace MS/DOS on PCs).

What strikes me is that in creating Chrome Google are starting to do the things Microsoft habitually did - eating it's business partners.

They obviously looked at the revenue they were paying out to Firefox and Safari for making Google the default search engine - and then deciding they wanted that revenue for themselves.

As regards which browser - in contrast to dogsoldier, my preference is for Safari and Chrome - but that's a personal prefer for speed and simplicity over power features. Opera seems at the opposite end of the scale to me (adding a Bittorrent clients, web serving features - it's the 'browser as the only program you need' mentality).

By JulesLt on Friday Jan 15

Firefox's one major flaw

Firefox struggles to be accepted in large managed networks such as in corporations and schools. Systemadmins favour IE because it can be easily installed throughout the network from a central location, and the settings can be managed and locked down easily with Group Policies. I'm astonished that Mozilla don't at least release an MSI package for Firefox along with the necessary ADM files to manage Firefox's features. I know it would be possible to create these manually, but why go to all that effort when IE's already installed and has all that jazz?

If you discounted all the monolithic corporate networks locked into running IE6, Firefox's market share would be a lot larger...

By TheLoz on Saturday Jan 23