Microsoft itself kind of abandoned Internet Explorer with the release of Windows 10, so it was only a matter of time until the browser lost the first place in market share rankings across the world.
Now new figures provided by Net Applications for the month of April 2016 show that Internet Explorer’s market share keeps going down, while Google Chrome grows at a rather fast pace.
So in April, Google Chrome finally managed to overtake Internet Explorer after so many years as a runner-up, with the next few months expected to increase the gap between the two browsers.
Last month, Google Chrome managed to take over the leading spot by reaching 41.72 percent, while Internet Explorer dropped to 40.67 percent. This switch of places is not at all surprising given the fact that Internet Explorer is no longer the default Windows browser and more people are moving to Windows 10, so Microsoft kind of expected this to happen.
On the other hand, it’s surprising to see Google Chrome growing so fast when powerful choices such as Mozilla Firefox are being left behind.
At this point, Firefox is running on only 10.14 percent of PCs across the world, according to Net Applications, so there’s no doubt that Chrome is the big winner of Internet Explorer’s demise. Opera, another popular choice these days, is even more behind with just 1.97 percent.
Windows 10 comes with Microsoft Edge as the default browser, but until now, this new app is growing at a rather slow pace.
Microsoft Edge 13 (the version included in Windows 10 1511/November Update) is running on 4.07 percent, while Edge (install in the original Windows 10 build 10240) has a share of only 0.57 percent. Combined, Edge is being used on 4.64 percent of PCs across the world, and although that might seem a small number, keep in mind that the new browser’s market share is impacted by its rather limited availability.
Microsoft Edge is exclusive to Windows 10 and for the moment, there are no plans to bring it on other platforms, such as older Windows versions or Linux/Mac. Furthermore, Microsoft keeps improving Edge with new features and the upcoming Anniversary Update will bring a plethora of these, including extension support.
