Microsoft is being accused of using unfair and underhand tactics to promote the adoption of its new edge browser at the expense of others. Even so the latest statistics reveal almost no one is using Edge.

When Windows 10 was launched in July Mozilla's CEO Chris Beard complained publicly about the difficulty of replacing Edge as the default browser, see Is Windows 10 Playing Fair - Mozilla Thinks Not. Then with Firefox 40 Mozilla included a streamlined way for installing it as the default browser in Windows 10.

Another strategy employed by Microsoft is to try the persuade users of Edge who might be inclined to switch to another browser of the merits of sticking with Edge by displaying this message when a Bing search is made for Chrome or Firefox.

This tactic was only introduced once usage statistics were available for August, the first month after the official launch of Windows 10. This chart from StatCounter reveals that after an initial jump in the proportion of Win 10 Users running Edge as their browser from 14% to 20% at end of July, by the end of August all this gain had been lost and only 14% of Windows 10 users were continuing to use it.

The graph shows that while Chrome, Firefox and IE lost share temporarily they all recovered to some extent but only Chrome ended the period with an increased share at the end of August. 

According to NetMarketShare Edge was the browser used in August by 2.03% of desktop users worldwide, a more optimistic result for Microsoft than the 0.86% share obtained using StatCounter figures. Only 0.82% of visitors to I Programmer used Edge as their browser, despite the fact that more of them were using Windows 10 (6.6% compared to around 5% from both NetMarketShare and StatCounter).

It does look as though users who are sophisticated enough to make an active choice of browser are ditching Edge in preference for Chrome. 

More Information

NetMarketShare

StatCounter

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