Microsoft is gradually losing its grip in the browser marker with Internet users shifting to other platforms like Mozila's Firefox and Google's Chrome browser.

According to new figures published by NetApplications, Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) web browser, now accounts for less than 60 percent of the market, down from 95 percent at its peak in 2003.

Meanwhile Firefox has risen to nearly a quarter. Google's Chrome browser remains a distant third, however it has widened the gap over Apple's Safari. Chrome now accounts for a 6.7 percent share of the market and has risen sharply in last year by nearly 2 percent

Microsoft's loss of market share is largely due to concerns over security.

Attacks on Google's systems last year were due in part to flaws in Internet Explorer and prompted Microsoft to role out security updates and encourage users to move from IE6 to IE7 or IE8.

Another factor is the introduction forced on Microsoft by the European Union of giving consumers a browser choice. In March all IE users in Europe began to be greeted with a welcome screen offering them other browsers instead of their usual Internet Explorer.

But the so-called browser wars are not yet at an end. Microsoft may reclaim some of the market when IE9 is released.

IE9 promises to support HTML5, the next-generation standard for coding web pages, which aims to reduce the need for software plug-ins, such as Flash.

Apple remains a key rival for Microsoft in the browser market and it has seen its Safari browser gain market share but the two rivals are united when it comes to supporting the HTML5 web standards.

Apple sees HTML5, and other new web standards such as the h.264 standard for video, as a replacement for Flash and has been involved in a high-profile spat with Flash owners Adobe. In fact Apple has already banned the video standard Flash on many of its products.