Microsoft’s days of dominance are quickly coming to a close as StatCounter has announced that the software giant has lost the gold to an old nemesis.

However what’s surprising about StatCounter’s report is not who inherited the gold, but rather who is really killing off IE in the EU.

The firm’s research arm StatCounter Global Stats reports that in December, Firefox took 38.11% of European market share, compared to IE’s 37.52%.

“This is the first time that IE has been dethroned from the number one spot in a major territory,” commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter. “This appears to be happening because Google’s Chrome is stealing share from Internet Explorer while Firefox is mainly maintaining its existing share.”

Google Chrome in third place is gaining market share in Europe and has grown to 14.58% compared to 5.06% in December last year. (StatCounter Global Stats)

Despite unveiling Internet Explorer 9 to the masses, Microsoft has been unable to slow the bleeding as more and more users are defecting towards Google Chrome which is considered not only faster than its rivals, but safer as well.

While Mozilla (the organization behind Firefox) is probably thrilled at inheriting the gold away from IE, the company needs to figure out a way to increase the popularity of their browser lest they suffer the same fate as Microsoft in a few years.

Originally posted on January 4, 2011 @ 3:34 pm