Firefox Market Share Gains Slowing

Usage share of Microsoft's Internet Explorer continued to slip in April, although at slower pace than in previous months, research firm OneStat.com has reported. 86.63 percent of Internet users were browsing with Internet Explorer, down 0.65 percent from the end of February.

However, it seems as if the rapid growth of Firefox was also slowing, as the upstart browser only recorded a 0.24 percent gain to sit at 8.69 percent total usage.

"It seems that the rapid growth of the global usage share of Mozilla's Firefox is slowing down at the moment. It looks like that browser users of Internet Explorer for Apple's Mac are switching to Safari because the global usage share is still growing" said Niels Brinkman, co-founder of OneStat.com.

Safari registered a 1.26 percent share for April, trailed by the Netscape and Opera browsers, both with a little over one percent market share.

Research firm WebSideStory said in late February Internet Explorer fell below 90 percent usage for the first time in several years, and Firefox had a market share of 5.69 percent. WebSideStory separates Firefox from other Mozilla browsers, whereas OneStat.com does not.