Google's Chrome Web browser held 6.1 percent market share through March 2010 and is on pace to top 10 percent by the end of 2010, according to data from Net Applications. Chrome's gain comes after it held 5.6 percent market share through February, according to the researcher. Chrome's latest gains may have come at the expense of market leader Microsoft Internet Explorer, which sat at 60.7 percent through March from 61.6 percent through February. Chrome needs only to gain a percentage point of share every two months to top 10 percent by December.
Google's Chrome Web browser commanded 6.1 percent market share through March
2010 and is on track to grow to double digits by the end of the year, according
to data from Net Applications.
The gain comes after Chrome
grabbed 5.6 percent market share through February, according
to the researcher.
Chrome's latest gains may have come at the expense of market leader
Microsoft Internet Explorer, which sat at 60.7 percent through March from 61.6
percent through February.
Mozilla Firefox and Apple's Safari browser, which Google
passed in December, both grew a bit. Firefox held 24.5 percent
market share through March, compared with 24.2 percent through February. Safari
rose from 4.5 percent the last period to 4.7 percent through March.
Chrome held only 1.6 market share through March 2009, toiling its way to 2
percent in May last year and 3.2 percent in September, before jumping to 4.6
percent in December.
Chrome began seeing great pickup after Dec. 8, when Google
launched beta versions of Chrome for Mac and Linux. Chrome
notched 5.2 percent of the market through January and
5.6 percent through February before hitting the 6.1 percent figure last month.
Chrome needs only to gain a percentage point of share every two months to
top 10 percent by December, a feat that is certainly attainable given Chrome's
current growth spurts.
It is unclear where the current growth is coming from. Google is carefully
grooming its browser, regularly upgrading its versions for Windows; the company
added machine translation and privacy features in March,
and has been nurturing
extensions.
But Google is not heavily marketing Chrome even as it is
developing the Chrome Operating System, the layer on top
of which Chrome will sit and allow users to
access Web applications.
Chrome OS is slated to appear on netbooks by December 2010. Should Google
meet its deadline goals, Google can expect greater growth for the browser
through next holiday season.
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