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Is the Firefox boom over?
Browser's lightning growth starts to slip

By Jo Best

Published: Monday 28 February 2005

Firefox's progress against Internet Explorer is beginning to slow, new research has found.

Web analytics company WebSideStory has found that in the five weeks leading up to 18 February, Firefox's market share grew by 15 per cent, compared with the six weeks before, when the market share increased by 22 per cent.

The 15 per cent gain is modest in comparison to the open source browser's market share boom following the release of Firefox 1.0 in November, when the browser saw its market share leap by 34 per cent.

WebSideStory CEO Jeff Lunsford said in a research note that the slump was predictable but didn't necessarily mean Firefox won't meet its self-imposed target of 10 per cent market share by the end of the year.

"This is probably to be expected as we move beyond the early adopter segment. Back in December 2004, it seemed Firefox was a lock to reach 10 per cent by mid-2005, ahead of the reported year end goal of the Mozilla Foundation. Given the latest growth rates, the year-end target still appears attainable, but a mid-year achievement is unlikely unless we see increased marketing activity from the Mozilla Foundation," he said.

Firefox's market share currently stands at 5.7 per cent of all browser usage, according to WebSideStory, up from around three per cent in November 2004.