Only 5.69 pct of users care about internet security

The growth of FireFox's market share has stalled, reachting a 5.69 pct share on 18 February 2005, reports WebSideStory. While the open source browser gained 1.03 percentage points of market share between 5 November and 3 December, the growth rate in the last five weeks has slowed down to 0.74 percentage points.

The slowdown is "to be expected," said WebSideStory CEO Jeff Lunsford, "as we move beyond the early adopter segment."

The companies' analysis paints a bleaker picture of Firefox' rise than the Mozilla Foundation, the publisher of Firefox, wants to give. The organisation boasts that over 27 million copies of the software have been downloaded. But downloads don't necessarily mean users, Lunsford points out.

Now that most tech savvy users have switched to the open source browser, Firefox will have a harder time reaching new users who aren't as willing to download and install the software on their own. If Firefox wants to maintain its growth rate, it we will have to see "increased marketing activity from the Mozilla Foundation," said Lunsford.