Firefox set to claim one in four web users by end of year

Firefox 3.6 is scheduled for release in October or November this year

Mozilla's Firefox is set to claim one in four of the world's web users by the end of this year, the firm said yesterday.

Asa Dotzler, Mozilla's director of community development, said that in the past few days Firefox has held a 24 per cent stake in the world's browser market, with more than half of that usage coming from outside the US.

"I think this puts us on track to reach 25 per cent of global usage by the end of the year," he said in the company blog.

"Mozilla's global community of contributors sure does have a lot to be proud of. A special thanks to all of the localisers who have built amazing communities on top of an amazing product."

Firefox 3.5 was Mozilla's latest release, boasting features such as support for open audio and video, threads in JavaScript, canvas improvements, new cascading style sheets, downloadable fonts and geolocation services

The company's current release map shows that Firefox 3.6 will be released in the next couple of months, with Firefox 3.7 following in March 2010. The next major release will be Firefox 4.0, scheduled for launch at the end of next year.

The latest browser market share data from Net Applications shows that Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) holds 67 per cent of the market, followed by Firefox with 23 per cent and Safari with four per cent.

However, a current survey running on the Net Applications site shows Firefox as the world's most popular browser, preferred by nearly 63 per cent of respondents, then Opera, the favourite among 14 per cent of web users.

IE is only the third preferred browser despite its widescale take-up, holding a 12 per cent popularity rate. Safari follows closely with 11 per cent of web users loyal to the browser.