More on IE Vs Firefox market share

This is a more detail analysis of the market shares of various Browsers.

Interesting observation of the war:

Firefox has grown the most over time, with a sharp rise reported in mid September last year. For the most part, this is at the expense of other browsers such as Safari and Opera, rather than Internet Explorer, but as the year progresses towards Christmas time, these other browsers temporarily overtake Internet Explorer.

With respect to the uptake of IE7, the report indicates:

The fact that the numbers appear to be the same means it's safe to assume that most IE6 users haven't yet defected to Firefox. However, what is interesting to note is that the uptake levels off at the end of December 2006. What reasons can we guess for this?

Well, a major component has to be the vast amount of people in the world with cracked, illegal versions of Windows XP who strictly control their communications with Microsoft and do not want any new software from them - or for whom WGA is a stumbling block. In some circles it's even a matter of pride to say you've never bought a Microsoft product and yet use the full suite of their products extensively.

Another reason may be that there are problems with old hardware not being able to deal with memory and system demands of IE7.

Their observation seems to suggest validity in my argument that Microsoft through their WGA initiative is pushing people towards either alternate browser, like Firefox, or to stay with IE6.