Microsoft has launched its latest bid to be computer users’ default window on to the web.
The firm has released a beta, or test, version of its latest web browser, Internet Explorer 9 (IE9), which it hopes will help revive its fortunes in an increasingly competitive market.
Since 2003, the company has seen a 97% lead in market share dwindle to 60%.
IE9 will compete with new versions of other popular browsers such as Mozilla’s Firefox and Google’s Chrome.
Google Chrome now commands more than 7.5% of the market, despite only being first released in December 2008.
Internet Explorer 9
Mozilla, which has recently launched a test version of Firefox 4, has nearly a quarter of the market and in some countries is the dominant web browser.
Many browsers received a boost when the European Commission forced Microsoft to offer users of its Windows operating system a choice of browser, rather than Internet Explorer as a default.
Ina Fried, who covers Microsoft for technology site CNet, said the new software brought Microsoft “back in serious browser contention”.
“Internet Explorer still dominates in market share, but they have been losing out for years to Firefox and more recently Chrome mainly because of where they were on the technology front,” she told BBC News.
Internet Explorer 9 will excite Windows 7 fans. Features include the ability to pin websites to the taskbar. Web developers will be able to create specially designed pages that allow end users to take the site URL and pin it as a button on the Windows 7 taskbar.
Tabs can be torn off outside of the browser and snapped using Windows 7′s Aero UI. The software giant has also removed all the menus in Internet Explorer. Like Google Chrome there’s now just one options menu. There’s also a combined search and address bar to make it easier for users to search.
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SOFTWARE FLOGGER Microsoft has seen its Internet Explorer use fall below 50 per cent of global marketshare as Chrome has continued to rise.
Research published by Statcounter indicates that the Vole’s once ubiquitous web browser, what we like to fondly call Internet Exploder, has taken a massive tumble. The findings suggest that web surfers’ use of Microsoft’s flagship browser has dropped to 49.87 per cent. Firefox comes in second place with 31.5 per cent, while the use of Google’s Chrome web browser has tripled. Chrome has gone from 3.69 per cent this time last year up to 11.54 per cent lately.
“This is certainly a milestone in the Internet browser wars,” commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO of StatCounter. “Just two years ago IE dominated the worldwide market with 67 [per cent].”
The Vole had better hope that the use of Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) beta follows the promise of its reportedly – by Microsoft – high download rate. The INQUIRER reported at the end of September that Microsoft was all in a lather because it claimed to have hit two million downloads of its IE9 beta within just a couple of weeks.
If Microsoft can convert those downloads into users when IE9 comes out, that will boost numbers. However, it will need a lot more than two million to be anything more than a raindrop in the ocean of global web browser use.
Statcounter claimed that use of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer plummeted because the European Commission forced the company to offer a choice of alternative browser with its Windows operating system.
The INQUIRER reported in March that the Vole was legally bound to advertise other web browsers and Statcounter’s results seem to reflect this, as well as the fact that apparently people in Europe, when given a choice, make some good choices.
In Europe, Internet Explorer’s market share fell from 46.44 per cent to 40.26 per cent, but it seems that US web surfers are somewhat less discerning, because IE’s market share remained at 52 per cent in the US.
The internet of the future is likely to look very different from the distinct pages and sites we visit today – that was the message as Microsoft launched the latest version of their much-maligned Internet Explorer web browser. And while every major manufacturer always claims that theirs is a revolutionary product, the company that remains best known for Windows and Office might just be on the right track this time. Headlines around the world greeted IE9 as Microsoft’s most ambitious yet, while others called it revolutionary. Respected British website Techradar.com went so far as to call it “ie-mazing”.
Almost since it launched Internet Explorer in 1995, the browser has been troublesome for Microsoft. Even when it was in use by 95 per cent of all web users in 2002, a tech-savvy audience maintained that it was not the best option available. Firefox, the now-defunct Netscape Navigator and more recently Google Chrome have set the pace for speed and ease of use. With usage now down to less than two-thirds of the online population Microsoft has staged a fightback that, for once, appears to be winning many experts round, even if browsers are all starting to look more similar anyway.
If Microsoft wants to build market share for its latest version of its Internet Explorer browser, that may be all but impossible. The company has decided to make IE9 incompatible with Windows XP, as it lacks the necessary technologies to power the new browser.
According to research firm NetApplications, nearly 61 percent of all computers run Windows XP as of August. Windows Vista and Windows 7, both IE9 compatible, make up about 30 percent. In other words, seven in 10 PCs are incompatible right out of the box, a major problem for Microsoft.
Due to this, analysts expect that it could take as much as a year or longer before IE9 starts making any inroads. Of course, its uptake is also directly tied to how quickly computer users upgrade too, which is generally hard to predict.