Microsoft's IE losing ground in European browser wars after browser choice introduction

Microsoft's (IE) is said to have lost three times its usual market share loss rate across some European markets since the release of its 'browser ballot' mechanism that allows Windows customers to choose an alternative browser in compliance with the European Commission's ruling. 

The European Commission had heard the complaint pertaining to Microsoft's bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows, which reduced competitiveness in the browser market. To address the Commission's concerns, Microsoft worked out a settlement agreement that offered end-users a choice of browsers automatically, where users were allowed to choose their browser through a 'ballot' mechanism. 

The ballot was distributed to Windows users across Europe via Windows Update. A selection of a dozen browsers is offered to users, who can then choose one of them to be installed as the default browser. Though initially offered through an alphabetic list, the ballot now changes the order in which the browsers are offered into a random order so that no particular browser has an advantage. The ballot shows the browsers in a scrollable screen, with the first five browsers offered in random order, and the next scroll offering the remaining browsers, again at random. The first screen offers the five most popular browsers, including IE, Opera, Firefox, Safari and Google's Chrome. 

Web statistics firm StatCounter has mapped the loss in IE's usage share, saying that it dipped more significantly than was usual across several European countries including France, Germany, Italy and the U.K., since the March 1 introducing of the Ballot system.

France saw IE's share drop 2.4 percent since the end of February, at over twice the speed of IE's average rate of montly decline of  one percent. Mozilla's Firefox gained 1.2 percent and Google's Chrome climbed 0.8 percent, both posting higher-than-average gains. IE also slipped in Germany losing 0.9 percent, three times the 12-month average of 0.3 percent. In Italy, IE lost 1.3 percent, almost over two times the average rate of decline of 0.5 of a point. In the UK, IE dropped 0.9  percent, almost twice the previous average of 0.5 percent. Firefox gained the maximum in France and Germany, posting gains of 1.2 and 0.4  percent respectively.  Chrome gained ground in Italy and the UK, gaining 0.7 and 0.6 percent respectively. 

Norwegian web browser company Opera, which was the complainant to the EU Commission that resulted in the anti trust action, issued a statement revealing happy numbers. Opera said that following the introduction of the Choice Screen in Europe, it has experienced a dramatic uptake on downloads of its latest browser, the Opera 10.50, where over half of the European downloads of Opera’s latest browser come directly from the Choice Screen.