kapow - 8:12 pm on Sep 8, 2007 (gmt 0)

1.) Probably the single biggest influence on browser usage is what comes pre-installed. No prizes for guessing the standard pre-installed browser.

2.) Many people use the web at work. So the issue there is what their IT department think is right, and (in my experience) most corporate IT folk are MS believers because thats where most of the jobs are. They take a long time before they upgrade too (for sensible reasons mentioned in the other post above). I recently visited the offices of one of the worlds top brands (can't say who), but all of their PCs are still on IE6. When there is an IT problem these guys have several thousand PCs to think about so they are not about to boldly upgrade into unknown teritory.

3.) ISP support
I havn't checked this for a while - I think its still true: People with home computers need support from their ISP for email/browser problems. If they say "I can't get my email..." or "I've lost my internet connection..." - and then reveal they are not using the stardard IE/Outlook the support line will not help.

Until the above change, the marjority will be MS Sheep.