Browser
With Internet Explorer Microsoft subdued the Internet. Now the last battle is lost
The former market leader Internet Explorer is no longer the browser of choice
© GAETAN BALLY / / Picture Alliance
Although Internet Explorer was replaced years ago, the company could not completely separate from it. Now he is officially retired. It is a symbol of Microsoft’s lost battle for the web.
It is one of the last relics of an era in which Microsoft dominated the Internet: Internet Explorer was passionately hated by many users, but no one quite got past it. Even Microsoft did not manage to make it disappear completely in the mothballs for years. But this is now changing: IE has finally received an expiration date.
On June 15th next year it is time. Who then does not use one of the particularly long-supported enterprise version of Windows, can no longer use Internet Explorer, announced the group just in a blog post. The end comes harder than expected: IE does not only get no more updates. Instead, the browser is completely deactivated and redirects to its successor Edge when opened. The era of Internet Explorer has finally come to an end.
Missed Opportunities
If it had gone to Microsoft, that would probably have been the case much earlier. When the group released its current Windows 10 system in the summer of 2015, Edge included a newer, heavily revised browser. After the rather mixed last years of Internet Explorer, the group wanted to clear the air and take on the new top dog Google Chrome with a more modern program.
But Edge never got going. Instead of gaining market share with the new browser, they only went further down. It took Edge four long years to overtake Internet Explorer among users, only in August 2019 was it ready. And even then it was not due to the success of the new browser. Instead, it was due to the fact that IE was increasingly lubricated: both were only just over two percent market share. Since then, Edge has only increased at the expense of IE, and together they still account for almost 4 percent of users.
A browser to master them
That would have been unthinkable for Microsoft a few years ago. Even in 2009, the Internet Explorer introduced in 1995 appeared almost invincible. Almost two thirds of Internet users accessed the network via the pre-installed program, almost three times as many as the second-placed Mozilla Firefox. But then came the ever faster descent. And the end of Microsoft’s domination of the Internet.
This had been noticeably shaped by the Group. And more than it seemed. When Microsoft introduced the browser in 1995, the web was still in its infancy. Unlike the only significant competitor at that time, Netscape Navigator, Internet Explorer did not have to be installed separately. Most new users started to see the network through Microsoft’s glasses for the first time, peaking at 95 percent of the market share in 2003.
The group mercilessly took advantage of this. If a website wanted to be displayed correctly, it had to submit to the sometimes somewhat crude standards of Internet Explorer. This made the development of competitors considerably more difficult. Because many sites pointed out that they only work correctly in IE, many users preferred not to switch to slowly emerging alternatives such as Mozilla Firefox or Opera.
The change overslept
Nevertheless, Microsoft slowly lost ground. The competitors were faster, scored with smart additional functions. In addition, version 7 of Internet Explorer became a real image problem: just as the dangers on the Internet increased, it looked like a piece of Swiss cheese with its countless security vulnerabilities. In addition, he was even slower than the competition.
Above all, however, Microsoft slept through the next level of the Internet almost completely: Microsoft missed the era of the smartphone, even founder Bill Gates had already described as its greatest failure. Because with the rise of iPhone and Android also came new browsers. And those who used Google Chrome or Safari rarely wanted to use IE.
Falling into insignificance
This can also be observed in the usage figures. Just three years after its launch in the summer of 2007, IE fell below 50 percent of the market for the first time in the fall of 2010, while Chrome was slowly gaining momentum. Another 18 months later, the two met at just under 30 percent – and the end of Microsoft’s dominance was sealed. Today, about two-thirds of Internet users worldwide use the Google browser.
Since the end of last year, Microsoft has officially handed over the crown of the browser king to its competitors: the latest version of Edge runs on Chromium-the engine of the Chrome browser. This has become such a standard that even the last spirit of Internet Explorer, Edge’s Explorer mode, is now based on it. You can hardly lose a competition more clearly.
Source:Microsoft Announcement, Statcounter
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