Other commenters have mentioned differences between NetApplications and StatCounter, but I suspect there are other factors that can heavily skew the apparent market share of different browsers.
For example, it is already well known that programming-related websites get a higher than average share of non-IE visitors. I don't think this would affect the likes of NetApplications and StatCounter, because they're used by all sorts of websites. But ...
... it is also much easier to find and install an ad blocker in Chrome and Firefox than it is to do so in IE. Many of those ad blockers and similar extensions will also block the tracking beacons used by NetApplications and StatCounter.
This probably has a negative effect on the apparent market shares of Chrome and Firefox. Especially the latter, I suspect, because lots of people who consciously choose Firefox nowdays do so for privacy reasons. (Can't trust Google anymore, etc.)
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How reliable are these numbers anyway?
Other commenters have mentioned differences between NetApplications and StatCounter, but I suspect there are other factors that can heavily skew the apparent market share of different browsers.
For example, it is already well known that programming-related websites get a higher than average share of non-IE visitors. I don't think this would affect the likes of NetApplications and StatCounter, because they're used by all sorts of websites. But ...
... it is also much easier to find and install an ad blocker in Chrome and Firefox than it is to do so in IE. Many of those ad blockers and similar extensions will also block the tracking beacons used by NetApplications and StatCounter.
This probably has a negative effect on the apparent market shares of Chrome and Firefox. Especially the latter, I suspect, because lots of people who consciously choose Firefox nowdays do so for privacy reasons. (Can't trust Google anymore, etc.)