Has Firefox Peaked?

It was exactly five years ago Monday that Mozilla released version 1.0 of its open source Firefox Web browser, and fans around the globe marked the occasion with a multitude of special events held as part of the "Light the World with Firefox" campaign.

Celebration ideas were plentiful at the Spread Firefox Web site, while photos of the results were available on Flickr. A Mozilla-sponsored contest, meanwhile, invites Firefox fans to design a celebratory poster image.

"We've vastly improved the browsing experience for hundreds of millions of people around the world," wrote Christopher Blizzard on the Mozilla Hacks blog. "We've managed to keep Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) honest and forced them to release newer versions of their browsers."

Firefox's presence was "a large factor in Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) being able to ship a browser to its user base as the Mac came back to the market," Blizzard added. In addition, "we've made it possible for third party browser vendors like Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) to enter the market. We've proven that people care about improving their experiences on the web."
330 Million Users

With more than 330 million users around the world, Firefox currently holds the No. 2 spot in browser market share, accounting for just over 24 percent, according to researcher Net Applications.

Microsoft's Internet Explorer, currently the market leader, holds 64.64 percent, while Safari, Chrome and Opera hold the next three spots with 4.42, 3.58 and 2.17 percent, respectively, according to Net Applications' October data.

Indeed, Firefox's market share is a testament to the magnitude of its achievements over the past five years.
'Out of the Ashes of Netscape'

"Mozilla rose out of the ashes of Netscape, and I think there was a kind of emotional appeal," Greg Sterling, principal analyst with Sterling Market Intelligence, told LinuxInsider. "It was the underdog, like in David and Goliath."

Firefox was also innovative on a number of fronts, Sterling added, "but I think part of its appeal was that it was not Internet Explorer."

Arriving as it did at a time of increasing awareness of security concerns on the Internet, Firefox benefited not only from its own innovative features, but also from perceived weaknesses in Microsoft's Internet Explorer.
IE Security Concerns

"I think the growth of Firefox was a product both of its own design philosophy -- a slimmer, smaller browser with features like tabbed browsing that could be customized to each user with a plug-in architecture -- and Microsoft's lack of investments in Internet Explorer post-version 6," RedMonk analyst Stephen O'Grady told LinuxInsider.

"The relatively slow, gradual gain in market share and prominence in Firefox shows it was more of a case of advantages and benefits of the software among its users," maintained 451 Group analyst Jay Lyman.

"However, there is no question that security concerns about Internet Explorer drove significant use and growth of Firefox among consumers, home offices and even enterprises," he told LinuxInsider.