pro10is
New member
When I first looked at the data you showed above, my experience with my customer base made me suspect the accuracy of what you posted. I know that Chrome has surpassed IE Worldwide, but I haven't seen that in my practical experience. And even Worldwide, I suspected that the gap was much closer than you represented.
Since I didn't see a source for your data, I did my own search. I actually found your data source and a few others. I'll present all of those below. I don't disagree with you that Chrome is a more user friendly browser. However, it is still true that many applications,,, that are business related,,, still rely on IE9, and perhaps even older versions of IE to be fully functional. It may not be what is ideal, but it is a fact. Heck, even the Federal Reserve wire application was DOS based until a few short years ago. It takes the business world a bit longer to utilize the latest and greatest because the ramifications of loss due to a platform change is much more substantial. Again, I am not an IE fan, I am just presenting what I know to be a fact in the area of business that I specialize in.
Your data was sourced from: http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp The following disclaimer could be found just below your uncited source.
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So I continued my search a bit further and here is a source that is a little less progressive and I think a bit more accurate. It still shows Chrome as the Worldwide leader. http://www.sitepoint.com/browser-trends-march-2013/
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To continue, I wanted to see if another source would support the conclusion and it did. Chrome has a Worldwide lead in the range of 37% to IE of 30%. However, further parsing of the dataset shows that IE is still the dominant browser in the United States, irregardless of business versus consumer. The United States is where I do business as a small Community Bank.
See below (1) the Worldwide Stats then (2) breakdown of how each browser is used by world region.
If the graph doesn't show clearly, Green is Chrome, and Blue is IE.
Source: http://gs.statcounter.com/
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So, statistics can be misleading and we shouldn't rely upon the first thing we come across.
In my business, I rely on what is actually happening in my own customer base. So I will present that below. I think you will see that predictions of impending doom and my customers leaving me in their rear-view mirror may be a bit premature. Please note that the graph below represents the entire universe of visits to our site. Business owners, who (unfortunately) are required to use IE9 only make up a small percentage of this total universe. The overwhelming number of usage on our site is from the Consumer Customer base, which by the way is not limited to IE. So the numbers accurately reflect what is "real" in my business.
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I am confident that you are a brilliant programmer and that you absolutely know your business in writing complex applications. But I also know what is going on in my own customer base. Chrome will eventually be fully functional in the Business applications we use. Being a small community bank, we outsource those to a very large 3rd party provider. But the reality is that in many business applications,,, change to the latest and greatest,,, comes at a much slower pace due to the potential for financial impact. Consumer based apps move much more quickly.
Lastly, I would say that the choice of browser is far less important to the hard-core business customer than you might suspect. What is important to them is that they are able to pay their 300 employees accurately and timely. If the business loses their payroll administrator, and I then personally drive to the business to help their new employee process and submit that payroll, then I have just earned that customers respect and gratitude that won't be lightly tossed aside because they can't use Google Chrome. :thumbup:
Sigh. I really don't want to get into this with you but you keep coming at me so now I have to respond. Everyone else please forgive me and go ahead and skip this post if you're already weary of technological mumbo jumbo and browser wars.
I say this with absolutely no malice intended, so please don't take it the wrong way: You are in serious technological denial. You've done all this research just to try to deny my assertion that Internet Explorer is rapidly on its way out? It's not me or anyone else on this forum you should be worried about, it's your business and your customers you need to think of. When it comes to the internet you must never focus your business model on what was or even so much on what is, you must always focus on what is coming so you can plan ahead and be ready. If you don't you'll always be one giant leap behind your competition. If you had done this your current application would already be working with Chrome which, by even the stats you yourself supplied above, is already the world's leading browser. If my bank tried to force me to use an already outdated version of the worst browser in order to access my obviously vital financial records I would immediately close my all accounts and find a bank that wasn't so restrictive and behind the times. I wouldn't keep my life's savings in any bank that I even remotely suspected was technologically inept. Your business's web application is its store window to the online world, it's how everyone online perceives your business vitality and decides if they want to do business with you. This is especially true when deciding to trust a business to hold, conduct transactions, and keep safe one's money. You're honestly telling me that you're comfortable with the fact that the first thing you tell your customers (who have to call in to complain that your web app doesn't work) is that they must use a down level version of a browser they've already abandoned and do not wish to use, because it's the only one that'll work with your application?? Wow. Again, with no malice intended, you seriously need to rethink this through. Do not let any shortsightedness and possible inaptitude of your 3rd party software provider become your business's problem. As a software engineer I'm telling you that there is no technological reason why any web application cannot be made to run on all browsers. This is called cross browser compatibility and it should be in the top 3 requirements you spec to your application designer. If they can't guarantee cross browser compatibility you do not want to do business with them.
Look, I was just trying to tell a few good folks here not to waste their valuable time using an outdated, poorly performing, incompatible, dying browser. I certainly don't want to tell you how to run your business. But if you continue to try to make a case why I'm wrong or didn't state accurate facts, or why they, or anyone else should continue to use IE, I just have to speak up because it's one of my areas of expertise and I can't let bad advice lie. So if you don't like my advice that's ok, let's just agree to disagree and move on. Please.
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