% IE users with Flash plugin

Can 0.5% be correct?!

[Sweeets]

We have developed a Flash tool for one of our clients. However he is showing me sitestats that say 0.5% of people using IE on his site have Flash plugin installed. He therefore thinks that no-one hardly will be able to see this tool. I understood that around 95% of people have Flash installed. What are his stats about? Am I missing something? HELP!

P.S The audience is a large one of UK business professionals and directors.

[vincevincevince]

I suspect the detection script in the site stats is faulty (i.e. outdated and only recognising old versions of flash; or only working in old browser versions). Does it have a good percentage of users of other browsers as Flash Enabled?

Install Google Analytics for a while - their flash detection does work - and a few days later (or sooner, depending on traffic volume) - review the results.

Also remember that 95% of the IE views may be from one user (i.e. the site owner?) if the site doesn't have much traffic, and if he frequently visits on a PC without Flash.

[jastra]

You said, "The audience is a large one of UK business professionals and directors."

We learned that yes, you need to consider not the total population of users but who's actually visiting the site.

Occasionally a lone Mac user will protest that our software doesn't work properly in Mac/Firefox and Mac/Safari. We've heard complaints to the effect of how can we ignore "15%" of users who are Mac users. But analytics show that of the actual population of users, the people who visit our sites, Mac/Firefox is 1.5% and Mac/Safari is 0.5%.

If the users visiting our site were a universe of Web designers I'm sure 95% Flash enabled would pertain.

[Samizdata]

the actual population of users, the people who visit our sites, Mac/Firefox is 1.5% and Mac/Safari is 0.5%

This is hardly surprising given that:

our software doesn't work properly in Mac/Firefox and Mac/Safari

What else would you expect in the circumstances?

---

On the Flash front, I would agree with vincevincevince that the stats are highly improbable.

UK business professionals and directors notwithstanding.

...

[jastra]

What else would you expect in the circumstances?

Well, they had to land there and get recorded, didn't they? These stats hold across 80 sites that use our software. And it's vacation reservation software-- not something one would ordinarily visit on a daily basis but then avoid it when various minor functionality doesn't work.

And yes, the stats are improbable.

[jastra]

So, I ran the stats on first users only. This will preclude the skew for those Mac users who quit in disgust and never come back.

Mac/Safari = 3.6%
Mac/Firefox = 1.2%

Now, the stats in my first quote were a little over a year old. The disparity between that and these new stats may be entirely due to that. Or, I'll concede a per cent here and there to disgusted Mac users.

Either way, we aren't going to rewrite software that cost a million bucks to produce for the benefit of a couple of percentage points of users. When Apple finally conquers the world, we'll come to heel.