Programming

Internet Explorer Extinct By 2013?

    Shayne Tilley
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    Microsoft should consider this a forewarning — if the trend of the past three years continues, not one person who visits sitepoint.com will be using Internet Explorer by 2013.

    With all of the buzz about new Firefox this and Opera that, I thought I’d reacquaint myself with the browser-of-choice for visitors to SitePoint.

    So I went back three years, to 2005, and worked forward, comparing the browser that our readers used over the years. The results were startling, so I thought I’d share (click the image below for a bigger version):

    A trend line showing IE decreasing rapidly, and other browsers increasing equally as rapidly

    The above graph shows the percentage of IE users against other browsers. Using a simple linear equation, we can deduce that each day about 0.2% less people are using IE on SitePoint.

    If this trend continues, then looking forward 1,797 days (or 4.9 years), IE usage will be down to zero!

    Now, we’re talking three years of history, and millions and millions of visitors — visitors whose lives revolve around web browsers. And yes, Microsoft have in recent times re-invigorated their focus on developing their web browser. The trend, however, suggests that it’s not working.

    With web industry professionals bailing at this sort of rate, if I were Microsoft I’d be afraid … very afraid.