01 April 2010 | Author: O. Gaywood Media Optimiser

Firefox claims 30 per cent of worldwide share

Mozilla this week released its first ever quarterly report in which it claims to have just under 30 per cent of the browser market.

Mozilla's browser, Firefox, is strongest in Europe (39.2 per cent of web access) followed by South America (31.1 per cent), Africa (29.7 per cent) and North America (26 per cent).

Usage has grown most rapidly in Russia - where Mozilla's Mitchell Baker visited in February - which saw a 20 per cent increase since the turn of the year. Other countries showing an increase of 15 per cent of more this quarter included Australia, India, Indonesia, Mexico and Turkey.

Other stats showed that users in Asian countries made use of the most add-ons and the average user had two or three tabs open at any one time, although there was a recorded instance of someone with 600 tabs open.

Mozilla didn't give official stats for Antarctica but StatCounter says that 80 per cent of users in that continent user Firefox.

This report coincides with the release of Firefox 3.0.19 on Tuesday, offering users increased security and stability. The update patches six known vulnerabilities, five of which were said to be critical. Mozilla also released an update to a later version of Firefox - 3.5.9 - which patches eight known vulnerabilities, again five of which were said to be critical.