According to this article, "A fifth of the UK's 35 million business and home internet users are predicted to switch from Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) browser to Mozilla's open source Firefox product before the end of the year, according to a new report."
Them's some large numbers :-) The figures come from consulting firm BDO Stoy Hayward. Dr Peter Chadha, technology expert at BDO Stoy Hayward was quoted as saying, "Firefox isn't totally secure as no browser can be, especially if it runs on Windows, which is the world's top digital target. But, in short, Firefox has better security and privacy, and we are actively working with clients to reduce their IT costs by incorporating Firefox into their environments."
I like it :-)
Posted by asa at January 25, 2005 11:11 AMAs a Brit, I really, really hope that there is some truth in that article :) .
Posted by: Neil T. on January 25, 2005 12:13 PMGreat news! I'm also a Brit and am glad that Brits are finally opening their eyes to free software, something that hadn't really taken hold (even as much as other countries) before Firefox 1.0.
Posted by: Chris Blore on January 25, 2005 01:34 PMdid u say 35 millions business and internet users in UK? where did those figures come from... here in the UK the total population is 59 million. Okay so assume some users have comps at work and home...even then...the stats for amount of homes who have access to a comp is 12.9 million.
I dont see the figures adding up....although i do see a large shift in general terms all over the world. As more people become aware i have no doubt they will switch. Only problem i oversee is that MS could deplete all the work of firefox by their ability to bundle in new software with windows. If they come up with a decent enough one, even if it isn;t as good as firefox, but solves major issues then people will feel no real reason to change.
Posted by: Usman Tilly on January 25, 2005 02:22 PMAsa, the great spinmeister of Moz...
What a nice subject for a blog post : "20% of the uk defecting to firefox?"! But come think of it, what the article said is : "A fifth of the UK's 35 million business and home internet users are PREDICTED to switch... BEFORE THE END OF THE YEAR, according to a new report". And that report is based on some "PREDICTIONS" of "SOME SOURCES IN THE US" regarding US, though allegedly, IF those predictions will come true in the US, such results "COULD" "BE REPLICATED in the UK".
Following this logic, "100% of Zambia population forgetting what hunger is?". Because "by the end of the 5th decade of the 21st century all of Zambia citizens are predicted to never experience hunger, according to a new report". That report, of course, is based on some predictions of some sources in the US that made such an estimate regarding US population. But, allagedly, this COULD - theoretically speaking - be replicated in Zambia as well.
This IS what term "forward looking statements" was coined for.
Besides, there's that point Usman made...
Posted by: sharpeyed bugger on January 26, 2005 01:48 PMI think this article is overestimating things somewhat. I run a popular browser-neutral UK lottery site and Gecko (Moz+Firefox) usage was 2.1% in March 2004 and is now 7.3% near the end of Jan 2004. So that's just over 5% increase in 10 months and we've seen that Asa's graphs show straightline downloading of Firefox (not exponential), so I'd expect no more than about 6% more (i.e. 13-14%) by Dec 2005, which *includes* any agent with "Gecko/" in its string. Way short of "20% of UK users running Firefox by Dec 2005" if you ask me.
It should be noted that UK corporations are resisting Firefox far more than UK home users at the moment - slower upgrade cycles, evil IE-only intranets and the lack of "rolloutability" of Firefox 1.0 (no MSI installer, no lock-down of prefs capability) mean that I get less %age Gecko accesses on weekdays (mostly work surfers) compared to weekends (mostly home surfers).
Posted by: Richard Lloyd on January 27, 2005 05:22 AMCorrection there - 7.3% near the end of Jan 2005 of course. BTW, the home user Gecko skew showed up on 1st Jan 2005 and 3rd Jan 2005 (both non-work days in the UK) - all three managed over 10% Gecko users to my site on those days!
Posted by: Richard Lloyd on January 27, 2005 05:25 AM