Despite 100 Million IE 7 Installs, Microsoft's Browser Still Loses Ground
Firefox's share of the U.S. browser market is at 14% and has continued to grow each of the last three months, says one research firm. — Although Microsoft recently touted the 100 millionth installation of Internet Explorer 7 …
Context & Ripple Effects
Microsoft's 100-million-install milestone for Internet Explorer 7 arrives during an unusually active stretch of company messaging: the same month saw its RSS patents spark an industry dustup, and in late December it had emailed bloggers asking them to return gifted laptops after a promotion with AMD backfired. Against that backdrop, one research firm reports Firefox holding 14% of U.S. browser share with growth in each of the last three months.
Mid-January analysis framed the two browsers as heading apart again rather than converging, and Microsoft's plans for a follow-up release remain speculation — unconfirmed — leaving the company without a stated answer to Firefox's run.
First-order effects
- Microsoft can claim scale — 100 million IE 7 installations — but cannot claim momentum, since the research firm's numbers show its browser losing ground even during its flagship release window.
- Mozilla's Firefox converts the IE 7 launch period into three consecutive months of U.S. share gains, reaching 14%, which strengthens its standing with developers and download-driven users.
Second-order effects
- Sustained share loss raises pressure on Microsoft to articulate a next-generation roadmap, though its Internet Explorer 8 intentions remain unconfirmed rumor rather than announced plans.
- With conventional product news cutting against it, Microsoft leans further on promotional channels — the pattern behind the blogger-laptop campaign and the patent dustup both landing in a single month.
Third-order effects
- If the reported divergence continues, browser share measured monthly by research firms becomes the scorecard that drives developer and site-owner targeting decisions, eroding the assumption that Internet Explorer is the default target.
- A durable two-browser contest would push the market toward competing on features and standards support rather than distribution alone — though how far this rebalancing goes is genuinely uncertain from the current data.
The trend: Browsers are re-emerging as a contested, share-tracked market layer rather than a bundled fixture of Windows, with Firefox's monthly gains forcing Microsoft to compete for the first time in years.