Switchfast Blog: The Future of IT
Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Going Strong But Faces Adversity
Friday, July 02, 2010 by Matt Hymel
The long-standing browser champion, Internet Explorer, hasn't
exactly thrived over the last year or so. As competition like
Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Apple Safari eat away at
Microsoft's market share, IE pushes through some regrettable moments to further advance the user experience.
While several critics consider IE a security liability for users, Microsoft has
remained persistent in updating malicious holes in both their
operating system and internet browser.
According to NetMarketShare's June research, Microsoft has made a turn for
the better. IE's market share increased by 0.57%, demonstrating the
first signs of growth in over a year. It appears that their growth
is at the expense of Mozilla's Firefox browser, which fell 0.51% in
market share. Chrome and Safari both saw a slight increase at 0.24%
and 0.18%, respectively. Opera, another emerging browser platform,
saw its usage drop 0.16%.
According to a Computerworld.com news article, IE's
"impressive gains in the U.S. in May" carried over to the rest of
world during June. Europe saw a 0.88% jump in IE browser usage in
June and almost as much in Asia (0.81%).
Vince Vizzaccaro, a Net Applications executive vice president,
offered several explanations as to the jump in market share,
including the "upswing in Windows PC sales, the fact that IE8 is
included with Windows 7, the recent marketing campaign, and the
continuing efforts to advertise IE."
While Microsoft has retained a firm grip on the 'preference of
browser by large businesses' category, the browser landscape gets
more competitive every day. Recently, IBM named Firefox as its default browser for
"nearly 400,000 IBM employees". Bob Sutor, vice president of open
source and Linux at IBM's Software Group, praises Firefox as a
"gold standard for what an open, secure and standards-compliant
browser should be... I think it was Firefox and its growth that
reinvigorated the browser market as well as the web."
Business isn't the only area that Microsoft needs to watch.
South Korea decided to get rid of strangling Web browsing
rules that "trapped the country's Internet users with 1990s-era
security technology and created a de facto monopoly for Microsoft's
Internet Explorer". The change came in regards to smartphone
services and government officials say they'd like to follow in the
footsteps of the U.S. and European Union in "flexing their muscles
over Microsoft's dominance".
Internet Explorer still retains 6 out of every 10 internet
users, but how long will their dominance remain with Firefox's open
standard and Chrome's speed knocking on the door? As rumors swirl
around IE 9 and next-gen operating systems, will Microsoft surprise
the enterprise industry by adapting and innovating?
Until Next Time -
Matthew Hymel
Switchfast Technologies
Chicago IT Support &
Consulting
Rochester
IT Support & Consulting
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