Internet Explorer's Market Share Slips: The Beginning of the End?

Microsoft's share of the browser market is on the slide. Net Applications, author of the study that reveals this news, says that it's the first time IE has fallen below 60% (since reasonable measures of market share began). The big MS browser's loss is someone else's gain though--and in this case it's the shiny speediness that is Google Chrome, and the slick UI of Apple's Safari that benefit the most. In fact, now that IE occupies "just" 59.95% of the market in April, Chrome has soared to 6.73% and Safari has risen to 4.72% (a browser record high.) Firefox is the only big-hitting rival to IE, though, and it too has scored a win with 24.59% market share.