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Net Market Share from Net Applications has been tracking the usage market share for IE8 since its release, and currently provides daily tracking.

Since its release as of noon Eastern Time on 3/19/2009, IE8 has quietly, yet quickly ascended to over 3% usage market share. We say 'quietly' because Microsoft curiously hasn't been actively marketing the new browser.

Browsers have been released by different companies with different approaches. Google introduced Chrome through a 'leaked' report, and followed up with almost no marketing. It almost instantly jumped to 1% usage market share, but with 7 months since its inception it currently sits at just 1.23%.

Mozilla, in contrast, has taken browser feature development and marketing to levels unseen before. Firefox has a loyal and growing following. Upgrades are seamless and well marketed. And, the results have been stellar, with a sustained growth in usage market share currently at 22.05%.

Apple's Safari has also been growing in usage share steadily, currently at 8.23%. But, that growth has come more from the growth in Mac and iPhone usage than from people switching browsers on the same hardware.

So, it's curious that Microsoft isn't taking the Mozilla approach by announcing IE8 with hype and fanfare. That being said, IE8 has still gotten off to an impressive start. But, time will tell whether the gains by IE8 come from older versions of IE, or if Microsoft can regain some of the share taken by Mozilla and Apple.

For these and other Net Market Share Statistics, go to netmarketshare.com.

Interested in an even deeper level of MarketShare Global Usage Statistics?

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