Market share in action - Microsoft IE in long-term decline?

The concept of market share is an important one in business studies. But what data can business teachers use other than the (slightly) tired example of Tesco, Asda et al in the UK supermarket market? One approach is to conduct a piece of primary market research amongst the class to see what their preferred Internet browser is and then to compare the market share calculated from student preferences with the overall global browser market…

Timetric is a superb resource for business and economics teachers and one of their live, free datasets allows users to chart the market shares of the main (and niche) Internet browser applications.

We’ve embedded a chart from Timetric below which shows how the market share of the three leading browsers (IE, Firefox and Chrome) has changed over recent years. It illustrates a steady but significant decline in the previously dominant market share enjoyed by Microsoft with Internet Explorer. Chrome (from Google) has captured 10% of the global market in a little over 18 months. Its a long time since I last used IE - I much perfer the plugin functionality of Firefox (great for downloading YouTube videos) and the sheer simplicity and speed of Chrome.

What about your students? What do they choose, and why? Can an Internet browser have a competitive advantage over competing applications? How often do students upgrade their chosen browser? Is there an element of inertia in their choice; or perhaps ignorance of the available alternatives?

Data from Timetric.

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Internet browser market share, (%) by type from Timetric