Microsoft’s Edge browser has gained many new features with the release of the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, including extension support, support for notifications, swipe to navigate, and much more. But it seems even the newer revamped version of Microsoft’s Edge browser couldn’t prevent the Redmond giant from losing browser share, as the combined user share of Edge and Internet Explorer fell 2.15% in August, ending the month with 32.54% according to Internet analytics vendor Net Applications. August marked the fourth month in the last six where the combined browser share dropped more than 2 points, and the second highest decline in the past 11 years. In the past six months, IE has lost more than 12 percentage points of its user share, and since the first of the year, 16 percentage points.
Google’s Chrome browser continues to benefit most from Microsoft’s decline, gaining another 3.02% in August to take a total of 53.97% of user share. Ever since Microsoft made the decision to end support for older browsers in January (all before IE11 and Edge), and gave users the option to either upgrade to the latest browsers or switch completely, they have experienced an unprecedented decline, with many users choosing to jump ship and board the competition.
Mozilla’s Firefox however has not been able to take advantage of Redmond’s crisis quite like Google has however, with the browser dropping 0.4% to 7.69%, having lost more than a third of its user share since the start of 2016. Current trends suggest that Firefox may fall below the 5% mark around March of 2017, Microsoft down to 25% by years end, and Chrome up to 66% by years end, or 2/3 of the user share.
