During September, IE lost nine-tenths of a percentage point of share to slip to 54.4%, a record low for the browser. Last month's drop was the seventh straight decline and the most since last December, when IE fell by 1.1 points.

The beneficiaries of IE's slide were again Google's Chrome, which grew its share by seven-tenths of a point, and Apple's Safari, which gained four-tenths of a percentage point.

Chrome ended the month with a 16.2% share, while Safari accounted for 5% of all browsers used worldwide.

Microsoft, however, preferred to look on the bright side by again plugging the success of IE9 on Windows 7.

Roger Capriotti, the head of IE's marketing, used Net Applications' data to highlight the gains of IE9 -- the browser Microsoft launched last March -- by noting its 21% global share of browsers running on Windows 7, an increase of seven-tenths of a point. has been consistent: It believes the future of IE is in the hands of its newest browser.