If you design standards compliant websites on a daily basis then you probably have first hand experience of just how ugly Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) can be. There have been many discussions in various blogs suggesting that it is our responsibility as web developers to stop supporting IE6 to encourage users to upgrade. As you can imagine this philosophy tends to be far more popular with designers and developers than it is with clients, many of who still use IE6 themselves.
As we move into 2009 I decided to do a little research, and looked at 3 of our most popular clients sites to see what the actual browser share was looking like.
End Clothing
These guys are one of the top men’s fashion websites in the UK. Definitely worth a look if you’re looking for some trendy new threads this Christmas!
Overall browser share:
As you can see Internet Explorer counts for 62.34% of End’s traffic. That’s pretty much what I’d expect but let’s take a look at the breakdown of IE by version.
Internet Explorer breakdown:
IE6 accounts for only 25.29% of IE6 users. Very encouraging! That means that approximately 15.5% of all of End Clothing’s users are on Internet Explorer 6.
Visit End Clothing at www.endclothing.co.uk
Magicbox
Magicbox are one of the UK’s leading suppliers of magic tricks, books and DVD’s to professional magicians and the amatuer market.
Overall browser share:
Magicbox have a slightly higher share of Internet Explorer users - 70.71%.
Internet Explorer breakdown:
For Magicbox the story is very similar, with 24.07% of all Internet Explorer users on version 6. This puts the total for the site at around 17.5%.
Visit Magicbox’s website at www.magicbox.uk.com
ICP
ICP are a division of Wordsworth Technology, and are one of the UK’s leading suppliers of industrial and embedded Mini-ITX motherboards.
Overall browser share:
For ICP we only have a 46.06% share for Internet Explorer. This is probably due to ICP being in the technology business, which typically has a much higher share of Firefox users.
Internet Explorer breakdown:
Out of those 46% of IE users we have 26.94 on IE6 - a very similar story to the other two sites. However for ICP their overall share of IE6 users is very insignifigant - only 13.75%.
Visit ICP’s website at www.icp-epia.co.uk
Conclusion
This has been a very interesting little exercise. It puts the share of IE6 users on all 3 sites at around 15% on average. It actually reminds me of a conversation I had a couple of years ago with a client regarding Firefox. They were dismissive of the browser because (at the time) it had around a 10-15% market share. However the same client seems far less dismissive of IE6, still seeing it as the most important web browser to optimise for. Yes, you read that correctly, they feel that IE6 is the most important web browser. I have even had another client recently quote to me that 80% of web users are using IE6. It just goes to show!
Looking forward to 2009 I would expect these figures to drop even further. Internet Explorer 8 is released early next year, and the flood of new computers being purchased at Christmas (all coming complete with IE7) should put a bit of a dent in those IE6 numbers. It makes me feel much more comfortable about winding down support for IE6, and hopefully next year we can stop pulling our hair out trying to support a hideously outdated web browser!
Written by: paul.younghusband
This entry was posted on Wednesday, Nov 26th, 2008 at 11:21 am and is filed under Web Standards. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
[...] Limesharp [...]
If only 13.75% was really insignificant. That still means more than 1 out of every 10 people is using IE6. Which is horrible. You can’t in any commercial venture simply ignore those people without a cost to your bottom line. When it’s less than 1%, party time.
IE6 is not worth optimising for, but it is still worth making sure you site at least ‘works’. You can at least safely ignoring giving IE6 users advanced functionality.