As odd as it might seem, no one has been as anxious to see the demise of Internet Explorer 6 than Microsoft itself. Last March, the company launched a webpage called Internet Explorer 6 Countdown that monitors the decline of IE6 usage. Microsoft’s goal was to see usage dip below 1% worldwide, but at a current 7.7%, we still have a ways to go. But when you consider that usage was 12.0% about nine months ago, the drop is a bit more impressive.
Microsoft is today celebrating the fact that as of December 2011, the US has officially dipped below the 1% mark, to sit at 0.9%. Canada, Australia and the UK all near that goal at 1.4% each. Other countries that have recently dipped below 1% include Czech Republic, Portugal, Philippines, Ukraine and Mexico. With 0.2% usage, Norway has the lowest IE6 usage of them all.
As it stands, Asian countries are the biggest IE6 offenders, with China dominating the rest by having a staggering 25.2% share. South Korea sits at 7.2%, Taiwan at 4.9%, Japan at 5.9%, Vietnam at 5.5% and Hong Kong at 4.4%. Given the high share in China, it seems unlikely that it will reach 1% anytime soon, but last March its share was at 34.5%, making this potentially the largest drop in the world. Let’s hope to see this decrease by at least half once again by the end of this year!