Firefox had a nearly 28% average use rate in Europe in the beginning of July, with growth in market share in all 32 European countries studied by XiTi Monitor - though Internet Explorer remains the dominant browser in Europe, albeit steadily losing users.

Between July 2 and 8, 2007, the average visit share of a European country for Internet Explorer was 66.5% whereas it was 73.3% a year earlier, from July 3 to 9, 2006, accoding to XiTi. Opera was third with a visit share of 3.5%.

Globally, Firefox use is highest in Oceania, which gained 4.1 percentage points from March; it is the largest Firefox user with a use rate of 28.9%, ahead of Europe’s 27.8%.

Firefox is also gaining ground in the other continents, growing to nearly 19% in North America, and growing 30% in South America to account for 15.5% of the browser market.

 
Firefox’s visit share in Europe has gained nearly 7 percentage points in one year, and 3.7 points since March’s 24.1% market share in Europe.

Firefox’s visit share in Europe thus reaches 27.8% for the week of July 2 to 8, 2007 vs. 24.1% from March 5 to 11, 2007 and 21.1% from July 3 to 9, 2006:

The highest Firefox use rates are in Slovenia and Finland, with market share surpassing 45%.

Ireland recorded the strongest use-rate growth since March: from 24.9% to 38.6% (13.7 points points).

The latest versions 

Though Internet Explorer is still winning the browser wars, in the battle of the latest browser versions, Internet Explorer 7 is losing to Firefox 2 in Europe, XiTi found:

• The average visit share in Europe was 23.1% for Firefox 2 and 22.6% for Internet Explorer 7 (totality of visits, all browsers taken together) during the week of July 2 to 8, 2007.
• Previously, from March 5 to 11, Internet Explorer 7 had led with 19.0% vs. 15.6% for Firefox 2.