ON ITS Spreadfirefox web site, Mozilla claims that Firefox has acquired about 15 per cent of the global usage share in the nearly 21 months since it was released. It has now passed the 200 million download mark.
Mozilla developer and community coordinator, Asa Dotzler, said, “At Mozilla, we’ve developed a much better system for measuring users than what we had when the [download] counter launched back in the Firefox 1.0 days.
One of the things I’d like to see us do is to transition away from counting download clicks and build tools that let us celebrate our very real and swiftly growing user base.”
Basically Mozilla isn’t claiming the same number of users as downloads since some people have downloaded multiple versions of Firefox; others have cancelled the download; while yet others download but don’t regularly use Firefox.
The site claimed that given the likelihood that the release of the Beast of Redmond’s Internet Explorer 7 will force an upgrade for hundreds of millions of unsuspecting people any time between now and the end of year, that creates “an awesome opportunity and ensures that this will be an exciting time for us all.”
Mozilla’s answer to IE 7, Firefox 2.0 Beta 1, is already out with the final version due for release by October 2006.
Dotzler says Mozilla is working on more incentives for affiliates who use buttons, banners, and links to spread the word about Firefox.
Spreadfirefox also revealed that the recently announced deal with Real Networks means that Firefox will be offered to people who are in the process of installing Real Networks software. “There are no plans to bundle any third-party products with Firefox.”
Incidentally if Mozilla thinks it’s got 15 per cent of the browser market and estimates that Microsoft has just under 80 per cent, does that give Opera the other six per cent?
News source: THEINQUIRER
