Firefox clocks one billion downloads
31 Jul 2009
Firefox, the open-source browser hit the one billion download mark as expected, today. The open-source browser was launched in 2004 and the downloads cover all releases since then.
According to figures the browser already enjoys a third of the market worldwide at 31 per cent. However, Microsoft's Internet Explorer leads the field with 60 per cent share while Google's Chrome,. Apple's Safari and Opera make up less than 5 per cent.
Firefox which was developed by the Mozilla Foundation, has since its launch in 2004 gained phenomenal popularity with web surfers setting a new Guiness world record for the most software downloads in 24 hours with its third version. It was downloaded more than 8 million times.
The new milestone of a billion downloads set today, which in addition to all releases since 2004 also includes single users downloading multiple copies for different computers. However the total excludes automatic updates.
The Mozilla website is tracking the total number of downloads, it will also launch a website, OneBillionPlusYou.com to celebrate the milestone.
Mozilla's Firefox version 3.5 was released on 30 June and clocked 5 million downloads in 24 hours.