Firefox 4 hits the ground running and eclipses IE 9

BOSTON, USA: Mozilla Firefox 4, which was launched yesterday, has already taken 1.95 percent of the worldwide Internet browser market according to StatCounter, the free website analytics company.

The firm's research arm StatCounter Global Stats reports that on the first day of its release Firefox 4 scored higher globally than Microsoft's new Internet Explorer 9 (IE 9) which was launched more than a week ago.

Also read: Firefox takes top browser spot in Europe

"Firefox 4 has really hit the ground running and has eclipsed the launch of IE 9," commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter. "Although IE 9 has undoubtedly been hampered by its lack of compatibility with Windows XP."

By yesterday IE 9 had taken just 0.87 percent of the worldwide market.

When all versions of each browser are taken in to account, Internet Explorer still leads the global market with 45 percent followed by Firefox with 30 percent and Chrome with 17 percent. In the US, IE (all versions combined) leads the market with 48 percent followed by Firefox on 26 percent and Chrome on 14 percent.

Also read: Bing overtakes Yahoo! globally for first time

On a monthly basis, StatCounter figures show a steady decline in the IE global market share from 55 percent in February last year to 45 percent this year. In the same time frame Google's Chrome has risen steadily from 7 percent worldwide to 17 percent.

StatCounter recently reported that Firefox overtook Microsoft's Internet Explorer to become the number one browser in Europe for the first time in December 2010.

StatCounter Global Stats are based on aggregate data collected on a sample exceeding 15 billion page views per month (4 billion from the US) from the StatCounter network of more than three million websites.

StatCounter, which provides free website stats, publishes browser version stats via StatCounter Global Stats, a free online research tool. It also monitors other Internet market share battles including Social Media.