Internet Explorer will drop under 50 percent share by mid-2012

Microsoft's IE (Internet Explorer) will lose its place as the majority browser next summer, according to statistics published by Web metrics company Net Applications.

If the pace of IE's decline over the last 12 months continues, IE will drop under the 50 percent mark in June 2012. In August, IE lost about seven-tenths of a percentage point in usage share, falling to 55.3 percent, a new low for the once-dominant browser. In the last year, IE has dropped 6.9 points. But Microsoft continued today to stress the success of IE9, the edition launched last March, particularly on Windows 7. On that newer operating system, IE9 accounts for 20.4 percent of all browsers globally, and 27.7 percent on Windows 7 in the U.S., said Roger Capriotti, director of IE marketing.