Internet Explorer has finally dipped below 50 percent global browser market share for the first time in over a decade, causing web developers everywhere to smile a bit before they realize that the number hasn’t dipped far below 50 percent, sitting at 49.59 percent. Internet Explorer still leads the desktop browser market share at 52.63 percent, but what carved away at its overall lead is the emergence of the mobile market. Though desktop browsing dominates the browser market with around a 94 percent hold, that other 6 percent of browsing was enough to take knock Internet Explorer’s share down a peg.

Internet Explorer’s market share peaked in 2004 at around 95 percent, and has been declining since as the world becomes more comfortable with technology and begins to know better. Chrome seems to be the beneficiary of Internet Explorer’s desktop decline, as it jumped 1.42 percent — sitting at 17.62 percent — of market share, while Firefox and Safari have barely changed, neither of which rising or falling a full percent.

Though mobile browsing is still a relatively small market and Android sales have been outpacing iOS sales, the mobile Apple browser, Safari Mobile, dominates the mobile market with a 62.17 percent market share.

We don’t exactly wish ill toward Microsoft, but Internet Explorer has been a thorn in the side of web developers — and children teaching their parents how to use computers — for quite some time. It’s nice to see that the world is wising up a bit.

(Net Applications via Ars Technica)

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