Andre Yoskowitz
4 Nov 2012 12:49
Harvey Anderson, Mozilla on business and legal affairs, has claimed today that a Microsoft 'glitch' has cost the company between 6 and 9 million downloads of their Firefox browser.
Earlier in the year, the European Commission began an investigation into whether Microsoft had failed to properly distribute the "browser ballot" to new Windows users in Europe. The ballot gives new Windows buyers a chance to choose which browser they want when they startup the OS for the first time, instead of being stuck with Microsoft's own Internet Explorer.
Microsoft claimed that a technical glitch affected 10 percent of PCs for over 18 months, making the ballot disappear completely.
Anderson says daily downloads of the browser dropped 63 percent, to just under 20,000 per day, before Microsoft fixed the issue. Afterwards, downloads skyrocketed to 50,000 per day.
In its investigation, the European Commission was certainly not happy with Microsoft's reasoning for the glitch and a fine is likely upcoming.
Mozilla remains the third-most popular browser in the world, behind IE and Chrome.