MSIE 6 Usage Drops Below 1% in The US, Microsoft Celebrates

[btarunr]

With three successors and design limitations posing as hurdles for security updates, Microsoft's iconic Internet Explorer 6 (MSIE 6) web-browser had been deemed a security vulnerability for anyone using it, and Microsoft undertook a campaign to get the world to update their MSIE to the latest MSIE 9. With December 2011 web-browser usage statistics out by several sources, the usage of MSIE 6 in the United States dropped below the 1% mark, causing Microsoft claim that the United States bid goodbye to MSIE 6. The MSIE team celebrated this development with a ceremonious cake and a little afterhours party.

MSIE 6 now makes up 0.9% of the US web-browser market. Czech Republic, Portugal, The Philippines, Ukraine and Mexico, are the other countries where MSIE 6 holds under 1% of the market. The browser is used by 25% of Chinese internet users (a huge number). Interestingly, South Korea, which has some of the fastest consumer ISP networks in the world, has 7.2% usage. 5.9% of Japanese netizens are still stuck to the decade-old browser, and so are 5.4% Indian users. Overall, MSIE 6 still holds 7.7% of the global web-browser market-share, which is respectable, considering it's greater than those of Apple Safari (Mac/PC), and Opera, and disturbing, considering it is a very vulnerable piece of software unless it's used for closed VPN intranets. More stats can be found here.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Drone]

MSIE 6 Usage Drops Below 1% in The US, Microsoft Celebrates

Celebrates what exactly? The fact that people use FF Chrome or Opera?

 

[btarunr]

Celebrates what exactly? The fact that people use FF Chrome or Opera?

Celebrates that MSIE 6 share is below 1%.

 

[Quantos]

Out of curiosity, why is the number so huge in China?

 

[ensabrenoir]

Interesting to know....must find a copy for my worst computer ever project

 

[iLLz]

I believe China's IE6 rate is so high because they have a high piracy rate over there. The most popular pirated OS is Win2000 over in China, and if i'm not mistaken IE6 is the highest browser that Win2k can use. They also turn auto off updates over there as to not download WGA and stuff like that so that contributes.

 

[btarunr]

Out of curiosity, why is the number so huge in China?

Because people of PRC [are made to] believe that "the great firewall of China" checks online threats for them (when it's in fact a censorship tool).

 

[digibucc]

Celebrates that MSIE 6 share is below 1%.

MSIE 6 Usage Drops Below 1% in The US, Microsoft Celebrates

those look eerily similar

@drone: they don't want people using an old version either, they want them on 8 or 9. it only hurts their reputation with how horrible 6 really is.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

A lot of corporations were stuck at 6 because of software designed specific for 6. They're celebrating the fact that those corporations got unstuck from that rut and they're not likely to get stuck again.

 

[btarunr]

A lot of corporations were stuck at 6 because of software designed specific for 6. They're celebrating the fact that those corporations got unstuck from that rut and they're not likely to get stuck again.

Closed intranet users don't get counted in browser stats anyway.

 

[qubit]

This is great news. It should be put out to pasture, just like XP.

 

[Disparia]

Hoorah!

Though it's been a couple years since I've actually taken IE6 flaws into consideration when building sites. Was low enough then to ignore it.

 

[newtekie1]

Celebrates what exactly? The fact that people use FF Chrome or Opera?

Good job reading the article, IE6's market share is still higher than Opera's.

 

[The Terrible Puddle]

Lets all go to China and make them upgrade (to Chrome)

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Place where my dad works....they are still forced to use IE5 because the boss dont want the staff surfing the net all day so there are some sites my dad cant go to because the browser isnt supported.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Closed intranet users don't get counted in browser stats anyway.

Most of those corporations don't have more than one browser on their business computers.

 

[Kantastic]

I believe China's IE6 rate is so high because they have a high piracy rate over there. The most popular pirated OS is Win2000 over in China, and if i'm not mistaken IE6 is the highest browser that Win2k can use. They also turn auto off updates over there as to not download WGA and stuff like that so that contributes.

That's changing quick. I found Windows 7 CDs for 7 yuan a pop (which is about $1 USD) when I was there over the summer.

 

[Quantos]

Closed intranet users don't get counted in browser stats anyway.

How closed exactly? I'm consulting for a major engineering firm that still has computers using IE6. The push to IE8 happened in fact in the last two months or so of 2011. Most users have access to the internet, of course up to a certain extent. Are they counted in the stats?

Also, they're going to get stuck on IE8 for a while now too. Windows 7 is only in test phase and not on the horizon company wide. I don't think the Win 7 users are even testing IE9 yet.

 

[ViperXTR]

i was using IE6 on one of the office terminal just a few months ago lol, need to update it for sharepoint usage hehe.

 

[TRWOV]

I believe China's IE6 rate is so high because they have a high piracy rate over there. The most popular pirated OS is Win2000 over in China, and if i'm not mistaken IE6 is the highest browser that Win2k can use. They also turn auto off updates over there as to not download WGA and stuff like that so that contributes.

I heard that it had to do with some ActiveX control that the goberment mandates for online banking.

 

[arterius2]

this is mostly due to that most computers in China are still running windows XP, even a lot of the new computers are sold with XP as well, IE6 comes with XP, and they never bother to update it, because in China they use their own browsers. (developed by chinese companies)

 

[btarunr]

How closed exactly? I'm consulting for a major engineering firm that still has computers using IE6. The push to IE8 happened in fact in the last two months or so of 2011. Most users have access to the internet, of course up to a certain extent. Are they counted in the stats?

Closed, as in completely cut off from the internet, and only connected to local servers over LAN, or "global" servers over VPN, these VPNs are so configured to be the client machines' only "internet gateway", and are governed by user policies so they can't configure anything or install any software. Think of the computers in banks, air/rail ticketing, sensitive areas of a large business/corporation, etc.

 

[Fitseries3]

how lame has the world gotten that we have to celebrate the death of a shitty software program that hardly anyone has used in years? thats like having a party when your neighbors you hate dog dies finally. do we really have nothing better to do? perhaps thats why IE isnt as good as it could be... the people who develop it are busy farting around throwing parties for stupid crap like this. get a fucking life. LONG LIVE FIREFOX

 

[Bjorn_Of_Iceland]

Im not surprised. Thats what corporate people do. Celebrate on nonsensical stuff.. and most probably just wanted some time away from their desks