Firefox Seizing Market Share from MSIE in Europe

In the U.S., Firefox is slowly gaining ground against MSIE. In Europe, however, Firefox has very significant market share thanks to the support network there, according C|Net UK.

A report by the French Web monitoring company, XiTi Monitor, said that Firefox has gained 3.1 percent market share in 32 Eurpoen countries in just the past four months. Firefox now holds 27.8 percent of the European market, according to XiTi.

"Itis a nice way to get started on a Monday morning," said Tristan Nitot, president of Mozilla Europe. "I hope we continue to gain market share, as our goal is to promote choice. Monopoly leads to lack of innovation."

Even though MSIE still holds 66.5 percent of the European market, it is slightly weaker in some countries. For example, the market share of Firefox in Slovenia is nearly 48 percent and is over 39 percent in Poland, Hungary and Croatia.

Mr. Nitot attributed the success of Firefox to the active support community. "...if you have a problem, people from the community will come to your business and fix any potential issues," he said.

I was also noted by Mr. Nitot that Microsoft has recently reoriented itself as a Web-based services company, and that will require a strong browser. "I think it [declining market share] should be a cause for concern for them -- our intention is to encourage Microsoft to get back to work and improve IE," said Mr. Nitot. "We want a better Web experience for everybody."

In the U.S., Firefox holds about a 15 percent market share while Safariis is about 5 percent.