It's not just large businesses. About 1/3 of our users use IE7, although thankfully there's hardly anyone still on IE6. About 1/2 are still on XP (NT 5.1). Some of these are small companies with <10 employees.
Until corporations upgrade from IE to something else en masse (unlikely in the near future), IE's share will remain disproportionate. I think the vast majority of people still using IE 6 are doing so because they have no choice in the matter.
Unfortunately, 25% of the users of my site use IE of some kind, and about half that is IE6. These are people who will either ignore me if I ask them to get a new browser or will never come back.
Look guys, there are reasons that people don't upgrade, some good some bad. The other day a friend's 386 died, and with it all these Lotus 123 documents, now, do I berate them for using obsolete software or attempt to get them back on their feet?
(And yes, it is annoying to support IE6 and I have burned development time doing so. Mostly its "kind of okay" though, since I haven't run into anything too serious.)
There are many people still using XP and I can't see that as a problem.
Three years is not an eternity - what fraction of PCs currently in existence were bought in the last three years? Not so few that we can treat this length of time as effectively infinite.
If IE6 works then why are you so insistent on people abandoning it? Is it to make it easier for those creating web pages? If so, just provide a lower level of support for the IE6 user.
IE6 is still the browser of choice in some rigid, older enterprises, and if your target audience consists largely of Enterprisey folks, you've got to support it. Their reasons for refusing to upgrade vary, but are largely irrelevant-- it's a reality that has to be faced, for whatever reason.
If, on the other hand, you are after the consumer market, I'd suggest you forget IE6 altogether. Any home user still using an un-upgraded copy of WindowsXP is not going to want to spend money for software anyway, so forget them.
The point is: it doesn't matter if IE6 has 11% of the global market share. The important question is: what percentage of your target audience do they own?
IE6 still has a surprisingly large user base according to my analytics reports. some of my clients' sites are seeing above 30% still using IE6. hopefully IT departments will go to windows 7 or something, because seriously - what year is this?
Quite a few of those are likely to be IE6 users, primarily due to governments and bureaucratic corporations.
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