Firefox Hits 1 Billion Downloads, Microsoft Disputes the Numbers

A few weeks ago, we reported on a story that encouraged the death of Internet Explorer 6, and since then, lots has happened. For one, many popular web companies have opted into a program called “IE6 no more”, where a snippet of code is implemented into a website that will warn users of IE6 that they’re using an outdated browser, with recommendations to upgrade. It’ll be interesting to see where that goes.

As if that wasn’t enough of a hassle to deal with for Microsoft, not too long afterwards, Mozilla launched a website entitled One Billion + You, which touts the fact that since Firefox’s inception, it’s received over one billion downloads… a truly incredible feat. Microsoft isn’t too impressed though, as you’d imagine, and IE GM Amy Barzdukas asks people to question the validity of the number. Her reasoning is that there are roughly 1.1 to 1.5 billion Internet users, so for Firefox, which doesn’t hold a majority number in market share, 1 billion seems a bit off.

I have little doubt as to the validity of the numbers though, because we’re talking one billion downloads, not one billion users. Personally, I must have downloaded Firefox at least 50 times since I began using it, because of wanting it on more than one computer, or friend’s computers, or simply because I needed to re-install a machine. Given that its enthusiasts who have helped with the success of Firefox, I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s had to download it over, and over, and over.

Firefox does have one major advantage, though… it’s cross-platform. It works not only on Windows, but Linux, Mac OS X and other operating systems as well, so it’s no wonder that it’s proven to be such a popular choice for those looking to an alternative browser. Currently, Internet Explorer is only available with Windows, and rarely do people download a completely new version (they don’t come out that often).

For those interested, in the past 30 days on our website, 51.72% of visitors were running some form of Mozilla Firefox, while 32.65% ran Internet Explorer (with 8.0 dominating the versions). Chrome has actually seen a rise, to sit at 6.38%, with both Opera and Apple’s Safari just under the 4% mark, at 3.98% and 3.66%, respectively.

“The reason that a consumer would still be on IE6 at this point is a lack of awareness or the ‘good enough’ problem,” she said. “If you’re satisfied with what you’re doing and you’re not particularly curious about new technology and don’t really care, upgrading sounds like a hassle. Part of our communication needs to be making clear that there are significant advantages to upgrading to a modern browser.”