Firefox crosses the 1 billion downloads mark
As expected, today Firefox has been downloaded for the 1 billionth time (1 thousand millionth in some countries), a pretty number that highlights Firefox’s success in its first four and a half years.
Here’s a brief timeline of Firefox downloads milestones:
- Firefox 1.0 is released on November 9, 2004, 1200 days ago.
- 100 million reached on October 19, 2005, 344 days later.
- 200 million reached on August 2, 2006, 287 days later.
- 300 million reached on February 12, 2007, 193 days later
- 400 million reached on September 7, 2007, 207 days later.
- 500 million reached today February 22, 2008, 168 days later.
- 1 billion reached today July 31, 2009.
One notable thing is the first half of the billion took about 3 years and a half, while the second one less than a year and a half, due to Firefox popularity reflected in the global market share increase, currently hovering 30%.
Spread Firefox has an ongoing campaign to celebrate the mark: take a picture of yourself or your group in a beautiful location showing cool Firefox gear, and send it to fxbillion@mozilla.com, until today.
On Monday, Mozilla will launch 1 billion downloads + You featuring the submitted pictures.
In case someone may get confused, this number has nothing to do with the total number of users, which is currently estimated at around 250 million. A user could download Firefox more than once in the last four and a half years, while a single download could have been installed in more that one computer. Without counting cyber cafes where a single installation can be the main Internet access point for several users.
Comments
Jonas
The 1,000,000,000 is probably still without linux users. We get Firefox through repos, and not through mozilla.com and mirrors. As far as I know Firefox is clearly the most popular browser for linux.
Ayax
You should consider making 3.5 usable rather than counting downloads…
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Percy CabelloJuly 31st, 2009 at 11:12 pm
You are not going to believe this but it is not people but a computer counting downloads (in its spare time).
As for the celebration, believe it or not, it’s not developers or designers who drive it.
There is even a different team that cleans the offices and print the stickers.
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Ken SaundersAugust 2nd, 2009 at 3:55 am
LMAO!
Hey Percy,
I didn’t know that it is you alone that is responsible for the development, testing, distribution, promotion, and customer support for Firefox as Ayax suggests.
Your a walking miracle!
Well, you’re probably sitting down right now.
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Ken SaundersAugust 2nd, 2009 at 4:00 am
What would have been another great miracle is if I had spelled “Your” y-o-u-’-r-e without hitting “Submit Comment”
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Ken SaundersAugust 2nd, 2009 at 4:03 am
Ok, it’s 5:00am here, I really meant to say… if I had spelled “Your†y-o-u-’-r-e and then hit “Submit Commentâ€
I need to call it a day, night, morning, whatever :|
TranscontinentalAugust 1st, 2009 at 2:10 am
Ayax, hey! Firefox 3.5 is more than usable, i’s brilliant, and as always stays a work in progress. I’m a Firefox user ever since version 1.5, and I consider, with no demagogy but with facts, that 3.5 is the most accomplished version to date. And, Ayax: I’m not the only one, you know :) Remember, it’ not because one encounters a problem with a given software that it implies that the fault is that of the software! Check your environment, your install, your extensions. Things done clean and properly lead here to a Firefox 3.5 with 79 extensions running like a dragster on Route 66 :) C’mon!
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