Well, I said this earlier – (heated debate on this article – Firefox is the new IE, Chrome is the new Firefox and Opera is still Opera) and data from Statcounter*, proves me right.

In 2009, IE lost it’s market share and the one to snatch that away is the lean and thin browser, i.e. Chrome.

If you remember the hoopla surrounding Chrome launch, everybody speculated that Chrome can potentially ‘kill’ Firefox, but surprisingly, Firefox market share has remained stagnant, which is something to really worry about (Read Firefox’s Introduction after 5 years).

Popular Browser Versions

IE 6.

We have mentioned this earlier (Firefox or IE? Which OS/Browser should your product support?) and even though geeks would hate to hear this, but the reality is that IE6 is still the most popular browser, though the good news is that it’s share is falling at a drastic rate (from 45% to 30%).

What’s rising then? Firefox 3.5, IE 8 and Chrome.

Popular Mobile Browsers

No surprises here. Opera rules the chart, followed by Nokia and NetFront.

Popular Mobile OS is ofcourse, Symbian.

Popular Desktop OS

No guesses here. Windows XP rules the chart, followed by Vista/Windows 7 and Linux holding a meagre 1.11%.

Please note that this data measures the traffic from desktop connected to Internet and is not the real representative of desktop penetration in India (related info: PC sales in India – 24% Growth Recorded)

Mobile vs. Desktop Browsing

Even though we claim to have half a billion mobile connections in India, dekstop browsing scores past mobile browsing by huge numbers.

What’s your take on these numbers? For developers, no matter how much you would like to ignore IE6, the beast remains.

* – Data is representative of the entire stats, as it measures traffic for only those websites that have installed statcounter analytics.

Recommended Read: 2009 Recap