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Microsoft's previously dominant Internet Explorer (IE) web browser has had a pretty rough couple of months, and now accounts for less than 60% of the market, down from 95% at its peak in 2003 and their worst share in the market since 1999, according to new figures.

Internet Explorer may remain the most widely used of all internet browsers at the moment, but a fall of almost 10% of its user base in 11 months is very damaging to the company.

Latest statistics from the measurement firm NetApplications, show that Internet Explorer currently holds 59.9% of the browser market (down from 68.3% last March), with Firefox closing in fast, with 24.5%.

Third place goes to Google Chrome which currently holds 6.7% of the market – which looks insignificant in comparison, but considering it is up from 1.7% last year it is an excellent improvement.

Part of this decrease in browser share may be down to Microsoft rolling out their browser ballot screen which offers Windows users a choice of web browsers to download – which competitors such as Opera claim have assisted in doubling their downloads.

If more businesses roll out Windows 7 and more users upgrade to IE8 rather than using outdated versions such as IE 6 & 7, and with a new version of Internet Explorer in development, Microsoft may yet see these figures turn around.

Browser Statistics From NetApplications

• Internet Explorer - 59.9%
• Firefox - 24.5%
• Chrome - 6.7%
• Safari - 4.7%
• Opera - 2.3%
• Opera Mini - 0.7%
• Netscape - 0.46%
• Mozilla - 0.16%
• Flock - 0.06%
• Lunascape - 0.04%