Firefox Nipping at IE's Heels in Europe 
According to the latest results from European researchers, Firefox has been rapidly gaining market share in Europe and elsewhere overseas at the expense of Internet Explorer.
The French research firm Xiti Monitor reported that Firefox gained nearly 7 percent of market share among European Web surfers during the past year, and 3.7 percent over the past four months. In the first week of July 2007, according to the Xiti Monitor data, Firefox held 27.8 percent of the European market.
Meanwhile, Firefox's share of North America's browser market has only grown by 3 percent over the past year to reach 18.9 percent, XiTi Monitor reported. So it is clear that Firefox still has a long way to go when taking on Internet Explorer on Microsoft 's home turf.
As far as worldwide appeal, global Web statistics organization W3 Counter reported that Internet Explorer held a 66.48 percent share of the worldwide browser market during the past week, followed by Firefox at 23.84 percent.
Firefox Factors
"I think Firefox's success in Europe of late is primarily due to the unbelievable media coverage it has been getting in the European press," said Forrester Research vice president and research director Thomas Mendel, who is based in Germany. "I mean, it's everywhere; it's in every magazine you buy and read."
Although Xiti Monitor reported that Internet Explorer remains the most used browser by far, the firm noted that IE is continuing to lose ground to its main rival in Europe. When researchers examined the results in specific European nations, they found that the use of Firefox has been soaring in countries such as Slovenia, Finland, Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland.
Mendel suggested that some European users might be avoiding Microsoft's products due to its ongoing conflict with the European Union over antitrust issues. "I think the other really interesting development here in Europe is that the younger people have always used Linux and other forms of open-source software ," Mendel explained. "And in the universities across Europe, students are strongly encouraged to use open-source tools."
Firefox Future
The latest research indicates not only that Firefox is gaining ground against IE in Europe, but also that the browser is growing more popular in the Asia-Pacific region.
"The whole copyright awareness in Asia is slowly changing," Mendel said. When I lived in Hong Kong about 10 years ago, no one cared about copyright at all. Now countries such as Singapore are enforcing their copyright laws -- which is why people there are getting more interested in using cheap or even free open-source software."
Apple CEO Steve Jobs recently introduced a Windows version of the Safari Web browser. Some question how this might muddy the waters with respect to the global browser market.
"I think Apple will gain a small market share but I don't think we are talking about a major market disruption," predicted Mendel, who said he expects Safari's appeal to PC users overseas to remain limited.
