Firefox Growth Slowing Down but Still Doing Good

Firefox Growth Slowing Down but Still Doing Good

Mozilla Foundation released the first stable version of their browser last year amongst very high expectations. And the browser had a great start with millions of downloads recorded in the first few months. In the recent days, the software has taken an impressive market share with the target of reaching 10% by the end of the year.

However, latest stats released by the company WebSideStory shows that the growth of this open source developed browser has slowed down. In the duration of five weeks leading to 18 February Firefox growth was quite modest at 15% compared to earlier growth rate of 22%.

During the days, after the browser was launched the figure was quite impressive at 34%. Mozilla Foundation launched the GetFirefox initiative, which gained amazing support from the web community. Donations were used to start a massive publicity campaign, which included full-page ads in national newspapers.

Critics and market analysts say that the slump in the growth rate is quite expected considering most of the users expected to switch have already switched to the alternate browser. And with the recent announcement from the software giant Microsoft regarding the upcoming launch of the Internet Explorer 7 version, it might take more efforts from the Open Source Community to generate more excitement in the segment.

WebSideStory CEO Jeff Lunsford said in the released statement: “This is probably to be expected as we move beyond the early adopter segment. Back in December 2004, it seemed Firefox was a lock to reach 10 per cent by mid-2005, ahead of the reported year end goal of the Mozilla Foundation. Given the latest growth rates, the year-end target still appears attainable, but a mid-year achievement is unlikely unless we see increased marketing activity from the Mozilla Foundation”.

Firefox’s expected market share in the current situation is around 5.7% and Mozilla Foundation expects this to reach double figures by the end of the year.