By Ingrid Marson
Friday, December 02 2005 09:12 AM
URL: http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/internet/0,39044908,39295189,00.htm

Demand for the latest version of the open source browser is "greatly exceeding" last year's release of Firefox 1.0, according to Mozilla.

Firefox 1.5 has thrashed its predecessor's download record, despite its low-key launch on Wednesday.

Firefox 1.0 was downloaded one million times in the day after its release, after a much-publicized campaign to raise money for a New York Times ad.

The publicity campaign around Firefox 1.5 has not yet started, with the SpreadFirefox Web site currently offline while it is getting ready for the launch of a mass marketing campaign.

But despite this, Asa Dotzler, the community coordinator at the Mozilla Foundation, announced on Wednesday Firefox 1.5 has beaten its predecessor's download figures.

"Wow, in just one day, Firefox 1.5 has already been downloaded more than 1.5 million times. That smashes our 1.0 first day downloads by half a million," said Dotzler in his blog. "If you haven't downloaded Firefox 1.5, get it while it's hot!"

This demand appears to be continuing, according to a blog post from Chris Beard, the vice-president of products at Mozilla.

"There are now more than two million people enjoying a better Web experience with Firefox 1.5. Demand continues to be high, greatly exceeding what we saw last year with the release of Firefox 1.0," said Beard.

Firefox 1.5 has a tough target to beat though, as Firefox 1.0 was downloaded at a high rate over a number of months — it passed the 10 million downloads in December, just over a month after its release. In May it passed the 50-million-download mark and celebrated its 100 millionth download in October.