Sony announced yesterday that its VAIO-branded computers sold in the US will have Google Chrome preinstalled, reported FT.com.

The announcement came shortly before figures released by Net Applications revealed that Microsoft’s IE lost 1.1% of its marketshare in the browser industry in the last year, its second biggest loss ever. The Net Application findings also revealed that Chrome is quickly closing in on the number three position in browser marketshare, just 1.25% behind Apple’s Safari.

For years Microsoft has benefited from IE being the default browser on most PCs sold to consumers. While it still clearly dominates the browser market with a 66.6% share the next year will prove interesting if Google’s plan of forging more distribution alliances with manufactures is realised. That said, Chrome has been available to user for more than a year and has failed to gain real traction in that time with less than 3% of the browser market, a very long way behind Firfox’s 23.8% share and Mircosoft’s 66.6% share.