Following Microsoft’s release of their internet explorer 9 browser less than 2 weeks ago, Mozilla have made the next move in the browser wars by releasing Firefox 4.
Firefox has been one of the main beneficiaries of internet explorers decline over the years, solidifying its place as the second most used browser, peaking with a market share of 24%. However, they too have been victims of the rise of Google Chrome, with their share now dropped to around 21%, whilst Chrome’s has increased from 1% to 10%.
5 million people downloaded Firefox 4 within the first 24 hours of its release, a very impressive figure, however significantly lower than than 8 million who downloaded firefox 3 back in 2008.
In their attempts to increase the pressure on IE and strenthen their hold on 2nd browser spot, firefox 4 has been given much the same descriptions as those given to IE upon its release, a faster, safer browser which incorporates HTML5 and a hardware accelerator.
It will be interesting to see which way these new browsers take the ‘war’, although a lot of opinions are pointing to further points gained for Firefox. Not only is firefox traditionally a more secure browser anyway, but the fact that Firefox 4 is microsoft XP compatible whilst IE9 is not, leaves a huge gap open for Firefox to fill.
For more information on browser security and selection, call the Dijitul team on 0845 050 2045.
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