The battle amongst the browsers have reached a critical climax in 2012. We may be witnessing another change of an era. Amidst the ever declining popularity of the Microsoft Windows Explorer, this time the collision is between Google Chrome against Mozilla Firefox. And the Google Browser has actually overtaken the browser that has ruled the hearts of technocrats for the last 5 years in 2012.

Firefox took over the digital world earlier dominated by Windows Internet Explorer, in a complete monopolistic market (MS used to command a 95% market share then). Firefox saved the world when Microsoft had stopped its investments on the Explorer research for few years, just because it was by far the market leader. While Microsoft remains the market leader still, the monopoly was shaken and stirred long back and today the company enjoys a 40% market share only, that too only from the corporate users of Microsoft Windows. The tech savvy netizens really needed a change at that time which could jolt the monopolistic market dynamics and improve the market of browsers drastically.

Within a few years of its launch, Firefox had demonstrated the power of CSS and JavaScript and how the two may be leveraged to change the web experience of the netizens, altogether to a new level. In fact, it was Firefox that triggered the HTML5 revolution. It is because of Firefox that Windows 8 application developers could develop the same in JavaScript. And ironically, it is because of Firefox’s spirited success and huge adoption, that Chrome was conceptualized in 2008.

When introduced in 2008, Chrome was foreseen by many technocrats as being an extension copycat of Firefox only, but lighter, with almost no features. The positioning of Chrome was simple yet effective: it addressed a single basic need of the netizen, Speed. This came at a time when Firefox was slowly becoming sluggish with tons of Apps which was making the experience of web-surfing cumbersome. However, shrugging off initial concerns on stability and security, Chrome has come a long way, and may now be equally poised to challenge Microsoft’s position within a few years.

Today, Firefox has lost a third of its market share, from around 30% down to 25% in 2011 end, and Google Chrome has surged to almost 26% market share, to become the new leader in the consumer web-market. StatCounter Global Stats reports that Chrome took 25.69% of the worldwide market (up from 4.66% in November 2009) compared to Firefox’s 25.23%. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer still maintains a strong lead globally with 40.63% although the share arises from Microsoft’s Windows/Office users mainly. In fact, almost as a party to rejoice its victory, Google has recently announced the launch of full version Chrome for Mobile, putting a fully fledged web browser on a phone’s tiny screen.

The future seems exciting, and we may witness a splurge of innovation in the browser technology, in an attempt to control the market share. Whatever happens, the netizens and cyber citizens will benefit from this competition which is bound to keep all the netizens at their toes to see what happens next. What do you think? Do let us know your take on this gizmotalk.

By Kar

Dr. Kar works in the interface of digital transformation and data science. Professionally a professor in one of the top B-Schools of Asia and an alumni of XLRI, he has extensive experience in teaching, training, consultancy and research in reputed institutes. He is a regular contributor of Business Fundas and a frequent author in research platforms. He is widely cited as a researcher. Note: The articles authored in this blog are his personal views and does not reflect that of his affiliations.