It seems that the era of users abandoning Internet Explorer in favour of other browsers is at an end. Microsoft’s most recent edition of their popular, if often criticised, browser has enjoyed growing market shares that have doubled twice since it’s Windows 7 release in late February.

Internet Explorer 10 was originally specific to Windows 8, but was released for Windows 7 earlier this year. This new backwards compatibility could have played a large role in increasing Microsoft’s market share in the browser war, as Internet Explorer 10’s fortunes were slow to begin with.
It is important for anyone in the field of digital marketing recruitment to remember, however, that the overall browser market looks to be divided in pretty much the same way as it was before. As of the beginning of May, various versions of Internet Explorer combined continued to hold just over half of the total market share. Chrome and Opera both fell slightly.

Firefox and Safari both grew slightly, gaining 0.09 and 0.07 points respectively.

Overall, Internet Explorer has seen its share of the market grow steadily since the middle of 2012, while Firefox has remained level and Chrome losing points to go from contesting Firefox’s position to being significantly behind (Chrome’s market share is now 4 per cent less than Firefox’s).

However, for the mobile market, things are much more unstable for all browsers, and people in digital marketing recruitment may need to be aware of the fluctuating skill base required. Since the beginning of 2013, Safari’s popularity has fallen, risen, and is now beginning to decline again, although it still dominates the mobile market with a share of just under 60 per cent. Android browser is slowly rising, after having bounced between just over 20 per cent and just under 25 per cent. Despite Android being the second most popular browser, there is still a 30 point market share separating it from Safari.

Despite IE 10’s growing popularity, web developers need to be aware of the fact that less than half of Microsoft browser users are using IE 9 or 10. IE 6, 7 and 8 are continuing to hold their market shares, with only a slightly drop in points for versions 7 and 8. However, together IE 6,7 and 8 still make up 57 per cent of Internet Explorer’s share.

These figures show how the latest updates to Microsoft’s browser offerings are continuing to gain popularity, but they also highlight the fact that older browsers are remaining popular, with users seemingly reluctant to update. For web developers, this means an awareness of older browsers is required. With older Microsoft browsers still accounting for around a quarter of the total market share, digital marketing recruitment needs to focus on developers who are not inclined to focus only on the latest software versions.

Chrysalis Recruitment is a digital marketing recruitment agency that finds candidates and vacancies for roles that specialise in SEO, PPC, Mobile, Java and similar.

Sources:
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/05/internet-explorer-10-share-doubles-again-on-the-back-of-windows-7/