IE lost share to Firefox, Safari and Chrome in December
Web sites saw visitors deserting Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser in favor of Apple's Safari, Mozilla's Firefox and Google's Chrome in December, according to Web analytics company Net Applications.
Internet Explorer was used by 68.15 percent of Web surfers monitored in December, down from 69.77 percent in November and 71.27 percent in October, according to preliminary figures published by Net Applications on its Hitslink Web site Friday. IE's share has slipped from around 75 percent since the start of 2008.
[ The Internet isn't what it used to be, as browsers evolve into mini-OSes. Find out all about the rich Internet applications these modern browsers deliver. ]
Safari, Firefox and Chrome all profited from the slide in IE's popularity.
Firefox's share rose to 21.34 percent, from 20.78 percent in November and 19.97 percent in October, while Safari's climbed to 7.93 percent, from 7.13 percent in November and 6.57 percent in October.
Google's Chrome browser topped the 1 percent mark in Net Applications' survey for the first time, with a share of 1.04 percent, up from 0.83 percent in November and 0.74 percent in October.
Opera's share remained steady at 0.71 percent.
Net Applications warned that decreased workplace use of the Internet in December may have biased its results.
"The December holiday season strongly favored residential over business usage. This in turn increases the relative usage share of Mac, Firefox, Safari and other products that have relatively high residential usage," it said.
However, Internet Explorer's market share actually declined more slowly in December than it had done in November, according to the company's figures.
Operating system statistics provided by Net Applications suggest that Macintosh owners are more faithful to the browser provided by their operating system manufacturer than are Windows users. Mac OS market share increased slightly in December to 9.63 percent, from 8.87 percent in November, mirroring the rise in Safari usage. while desktop Linux usage by Web surfers remained steady at 0.85 percent, compared with 0.83 percent in November. Windows usage dipped to 88.68 percent from 89.62 percent in November, a smaller decline than that in IE usage.
Net Applications tracks browsers visiting sites that use its traffic monitoring service, compiling data on around 160 million visitors per month, according to its site.
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The 2009 tech career planner
The economy is in trouble -- everywhere. Even outsourced providers are nervous. Already under stress, IT staffers see their jobs getting more and more difficult as they must do more with less, all while wondering if they'll keep their jobs at all.
That's why you need a plan for your tech career. The worst thing you can do is give up or panic. Although tech jobs are under increasing pressure, the reality is that the technology jobs market overall is still doing better than the market for other types of jobs. That doesn't mean you're immune from layoffs, stagnant salaries, or increasing workloads, but it does mean you have more options than many other workers -- if you're willing to be flexible.
[ InfoWorld has put together a special package of stories to help IT workers through the current tough times. Among the highlights:
* Slideshow: Where IT jobs are headed
* Special report: 2009 IT career survival guide
* Special report: Where the tech jobs are overseas (and how to get one)
* Special report: Tech workers under fire
* Special report: IT and the financial crisis
* Get sage advice on IT careers and management from Bob Lewis in InfoWorld's Advice Line blog and newsletter. ]
First, the bad news on tech jobs
There's plenty of data to support the fears that many tech workers have about their job security and ability to make ends meet. For example, more than 50,000 tech workers lost their jobs before the financial meltdown hit, and more jobs are in danger.
That trend translates to income pain for even the survivors. According to the 2008 salary survey by our sister publication Computerworld, bonuses for IT workers rose only 0.2 percent from 2007 levels. At a time when 3 to 4 percent salary raises are failing to keep up with inflation rates that are rising above 5 percent, those dwindling bonuses are making tough times even more challenging for IT professionals.
And stress levels are up. That same Computerworld survey shows that only 14 percent of respondents did not feel more stressed than a year earlier. Shrinking budgets are one reason. "Companies are in the mind-set of not spending in the next 3 months and increasing only 1 or 2 percent in the next 12 months. That's quite a change from last year when it was between 7 and 8 percent," notes Steve Minton, vice president of worldwide IT markets at IDC.
Having desirable tech skills is key
The United States and Europe appear to be especially hard hit, though the downturn is being felt worldwide. Still, tech workers might consider moving to China, Canada, or other stronger markets where the demand for IT skills -- and the opportunities to develop new ones -- remains good. A move abroad may also give you more than technical skills: It can make you more appealing to companies that have global teams, an increasing reality everywhere.
To remain competitive, IT workers need a combination of the 30 essential basic skills -- including, according to one survey, strong ethics and morals -- and abilities in emerging recession-proof areas where demand remains high, such as security, VoIP, and wireless. And don't forget about not-so-hot areas that are critical to companies' abilities to keep running: Cobol skills can be great job insurance, for example. Also, look to certain skills that have been hot for a while and, thus, tend to be neglected, such as open source, .Net, and Java.
Certifications also can help, especially management ones. But beware: Certifications are not equally valuable. Some are simply expected -- and may be necessary to even be considered for a job -- while others are superfluous. That's especially true for technical certifications; outside of security and networking, they're not proving that valuable. Those that tend to give you an edge involve management and business-specific training -- skills that business managers more easily understand than technical ones.
Read the other stories in our special report: 2009 IT career survival guide
Semiconductor sales dropped more sharply in November
The decline in semiconductor sales accelerated in November, an industry body reported Friday.
While worldwide sales of semiconductors rose by 0.2 percent for the first eleven months of 2008 compared to 2007, they slowed in the latter part of the year, dropping more steeply in November than they had in October.
[ Stay ahead of advances in hardware technology with InfoWorld's Ahead of the Curve blog and newsletter. ]
Sales for November fell to $20.8 billion, 9.8 percent down from the $23.1 billion recorded in November 2007, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). That's a faster rate of decline than that seen in October, when sales declined 7.2 percent year on year.
The biggest drop was in sales of memory products: Excluding memory chips, industry sales for the first eleven months would have increased by 5.6 percent rather than 0.2 percent.
Chip sales were hardest hit in the U.S., dropping 19.5 percent between November 2007 and November 2008, while the year-on-year decline was only 7.3 percent for Japan and 6.2 percent for the rest of the Asia-Pacific region.
Although the semiconductor industry is suffering from the current economic crisis, it has been hit less hard than some other industries, and in the U.S. will still be the second largest exporter in 2008, according to the SIA.
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