Microsoft has finally launched its latest Internet Explorer 9, available for Windows 7 and Vista… but not XP. Ovum principal analyst Richard Edwards asks if Microsoft have alienated their core market or are they going after a new one on mobile?
Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) will excite web developers and ‘prosumers’ as they explore the new HTML5 capabilities of the Web’s most commonly used browser (Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8 account for around 80% of the business browser market), but we consider it to be a non-event for the vast majority of corporate IT mangers and their users.
This is largely because IE9 does not run on Windows XP – the operating system running on 67% of corporate desktops.
Organisations with public-facing websites will probably try and encourage consumers to use the more capable, web standards compliant IE9 in order to make life easier for their web developers and to wow them with a richer experience, but non-technical users will probably wait until Microsoft pushes the browser out in a Windows service pack.
New browser versions are also expected from the competition, but we believe the next battle ground for the ‘browser wars’ will be fought not on the desktop, but on the smartphone and tablet, and this is where Microsoft’s existing browser offering still has a lot of catching up to do.
By Richard Edwards
Ovum principal analyst
www.datamonitor.com
