Reply
Fri 21 Jan, 2005 03:57 pm
Yahoo! News Fri, Jan 21, 2005
Technology - PC World
PC World
IE Continues to Lose Grip on Market
Fri Jan 21,10:00 AM ET
Matthew Broersma, Techworld.com
Microsoft's share of the browser market has continued to slide, according to a new study, indicating a continued momentum for users switching to Internet Explorer alternatives.
Experts Warn of IE Download Flaw
New IE Flaw May Help Phishers
Microsoft Issues Special Patch for IE Hole
Will Microsoft Make Its Browser Better?
Microsoft Turns On Pop-Up Blocker
Between the beginning of December and mid-January, IE's market share dropped 1.5 percent to 90.3 percent, while the Mozilla Project's Firefox browser rose 0.9 percent to a total of 5.0 percent, according to market researcher WebSideStory. Researchers have shown Explorer's market share falling since June, when WebSideStory had its market share at 95.5 percent.
Other browsers, including Opera and Apple Computer's Mac-only Safari, also gained just under 1.0 percent to 2.1 percent, WebSideStory said.
Figures from OneStat released late last year reflect the same trend, although with different figures. OneStat found that Internet Explorer held roughly 95 percent of the market in May of last year, down to 88.9 percent at the end of November, while Firefox and other Mozilla browsers rose 5.0 percent over the same period to hit a total of 7.4 percent. Both companies track Web user activity from more than 100 countries.
Users and developers have long taken issue with Explorer over frequent security problems and the lack of features that have become standard in the competition, but only in the last six months have users begun to ditch Microsoft's browser in significant numbers.
Microsoft Dependence
Firefox still appears to be maintaining the momentum of its highly publicized 1.0 launch ten weeks ago--the project says users have downloaded more than 19 million copies of the browser. But it could ultimately be stalled at a low figure by factors such as incompatibility with some websites. Enterprises also frequently build in-house applications on the proprietary Microsoft technology supported by Explorer, a factor Microsoft says it is counting on to maintain its dominance. If for nothing else, Explorer is necessary to access Microsoft's Windows Update site.
However, it is ultimately in enterprises' interest to support standards rather that proprietary technology, since every Explorer-centric application increases a business' dependence on Microsoft, according to Francois Bancilhon, chief executive of Linux (news - web sites) vendor MandrakeSoft SA.
"Our customers tell us there are two driving forces behind switching from Windows to Linux: cost, and vendor independence," Bancilhon told Techworld. "Ultimately one of the ways the desktop will evolve from Windows to Linux is by replacing the applications running on top of the operating system. Once customers move to OpenOffice and Mozilla, changing the underlying OS is a no-brainer."
This type of headline is misleading, Firefox has made modest gains and this is notable because no other browser has been able to do so recently.
However, it has not come anywhere close (nor will it unless it makes some big friends) to making IE lose it's grip on the market.
Here's to hoping that Firefox can grow enough to spur an IE update before longhorn is released.
Microsoft havent updated IE for ages, version 6 has been with us for quite a few years now! Ive heard a number of people suggesting that microsoft might be abandoning IE. Back in the days when Netscape dominated browsers were commercial products. Microsoft decided to enter the market and bundled IE with windows, blowing the competition away overnight.
The browser world is completely different now, with Firefox establishing itself as one of the main rivals. As its open source ther eis no money to be made from the project. Also with MS getting into such hot water over bundling IE with windows it might be a wise move to drop IE.
Result of dropping IE? Microsoft removes the item that got them into hot water for "anti-competitive behaviour" to try and get back in the good books. MS saves a fortune on development of a browser which is no longer needed, as MS has established themselves in the internet buiness, and the only real competitior is the community, so no commercial competiton really.
It will be interesting to see if Longhorn ships with a built in browser (infact it will be interestign to see if longhorn ships at all!!) and how it differs from IE 6. I doubt we will see much change, possibly just a few security fixes and little else.
Thoughts?
nighthawk wrote:Microsoft havent updated IE for ages, version 6 has been with us for quite a few years now! Ive heard a number of people suggesting that microsoft might be abandoning IE. Back in the days when Netscape dominated browsers were commercial products. Microsoft decided to enter the market and bundled IE with windows, blowing the competition away overnight.
Microsoft actually had abandoned IE. They planned to work in improvements through the Longhorn shell.
Recently there has been speculation of an IE update before Longhorn.
And to quibble, Microsoft did not blow away the competition overnight merely by bundling IE.
IE caught up to Netscape quickly and when it beat Netscape it was a superior browser.
Now IE is stagnant and I hope that they feel more of a sense of competition from Firefox than is really out there and that IE gets a pre-longhorn update.
Quote:The browser world is completely different now, with Firefox establishing itself as one of the main rivals. As its open source ther eis no money to be made from the project. Also with MS getting into such hot water over bundling IE with windows it might be a wise move to drop IE.
This makes no sense. Microsoft will continue to bundle their browser even further, to the point that it's even more entwined into the OS shell.
And this will continue to be a good idea for them from both a functional and business standpoint.
Quote:Result of dropping IE? Microsoft removes the item that got them into hot water for "anti-competitive behaviour" to try and get back in the good books.
Microsoft will never be in most anti-MS folks' "good books" and should not bother trying.
"Dropping IE" would not make the
trendy iconoclasts suddenly like the
establishment.
Quote:MS saves a fortune on development of a browser which is no longer needed, as MS has established themselves in the internet buiness, and the only real competitior is the community, so no commercial competiton really.
Now we are just in fantasy land....
Quote:It will be interesting to see if Longhorn ships with a built in browser (infact it will be interestign to see if longhorn ships at all!!) and how it differs from IE 6. I doubt we will see much change, possibly just a few security fixes and little else.
Thoughts?
Longhorn
will ship with a browser and it will be more tightly integrated into windows.
Wasnt the whole ruling of the anti-trust case that IE must no longer be integrated into windows, hence the reason why SP1 onwards allows you to uninstall IE?
Like you say anti-MS folks will never change their minds, but dropping IE may help persuade those in the legal profession that they are taking steps to allow fair competition.
nighthawk wrote:Wasnt the whole ruling of the anti-trust case that IE must no longer be integrated into windows, hence the reason why SP1 onwards allows you to uninstall IE?
Simple answer: not really, you still can't uninstall IE.
Quote:Like you say anti-MS folks will never change their minds, but dropping IE may help persuade those in the legal profession that they are taking steps to allow fair competition.
"Dropping IE" is not something Microsoft should consider unless that means just changing the name of their browser.
And doing so would have no measurable effect on their public opinion or their opinion of those "in the legal profession" except to make them think Microsoft was daft.
Microsoft should have no more consideration for "fair" competition ("anti-trust" laws are less about "fair" than they are about crippling the too-successful) than law forces them to, and that is a good thing, they are a business.
Stumble It!
Tweet This
Bookmark on Delicious
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace