IE usage drops to record low, could fall below 50% by March

Depending on how you look at it, Internet Explorer is either getting off to a great start in 2012, or it's doing abysmally. Despite IE9's growing market share on PCs running Windows 7 and Microsoft's positive spin, IE as a whole continues to decline, while Chrome is growing rapidly – in fact, Computerworld reports that IE dropped to a whole new low in December via Net Applications.

Last November, Microsoft's Internet Explorer blog predicted that IE9 would be the number 1 browser on Windows 7 by the start of the new year, and it has indeed lived up to this prediction. When it made the prediction, Microsoft said that IE9 usage on Windows 7 had already surpassed all versions of Chrome and Firefox, and was second only to IE8.

Sometime in December, IE9 surpassed IE8 as the most used browser on Windows 7 PCs in the US, and was at about the same level worldwide. While this might seem like good news for Microsoft – they're often their biggest competitor – the other browser related news isn't so rosy.

Neowin has the full report HERE!