Microsoft's IE will drop under 50% share by mid-2012

Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) will lose its place as the majority browser next summer, according to statistics published today by Web metrics company Net Applications.

If the pace of IE's decline over the last 12 months continues, IE will drop under the 50% mark in June 2012.

In August, IE lost about seven-tenths of a percentage point in usage share, falling to 55.3%, a new low for the once-dominant browser. In the last year, IE has dropped 6.9 points.

But Microsoft continued today to stress the success of IE9, the edition launched last March, particularly on Windows 7.

On that newer operating system, IE9 accounts for 20.4% of all browsers globally, and 27.7% on Windows 7 in the U.S., said Roger Capriotti, director of IE marketing, in an interview today.

"That's how we measure success in the IE business," said Capriotti, referring to Microsoft's focus on IE9 and Windows 7.

IE9 runs on Windows 7 and Vista, but does not work on Windows XP, the decade-old operating system that still powers more of the world's PCs than any other OS.

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