IE9 is on the horizon
Microsoft says it will release its beta test version of Internet Explorer 9 in September, yet usage studies shows one in five enterprise workers continue to use the nine year old Internet Explorer 6.
Browser writers would like us all to use the latest all-singing all-dancing versions of their software, but the reality is that many people are reluctant to upgrade when the system they have does everything they want. This is especially true of large organisations where a small problem with a browser upgrade can swamp the help desk with support calls. Recently the UK government said PCs in Whitehall will continue to run IE6 because rolling out IE8 would be difficult and could break web applications, whilst IE6 is still cost-effective. A security report by Zscaler shows that a significant number of private sector organisations are taking the same line.
Critics of IE6 say that the dated browser is vulnerable to too many hacking attacks and exploits, and also that its implementation of CSS standards is poor. Certainly the way it renders web pages now leaves a lot to be desired, and it creates problems for web developers like ourselves who need to code pages so that they are usable across the full range. But supporters of IE6 say that what they want is stability. IE7 didn't just fix the security bugs and CSS bugs in IE6. It also completely changed the look and feel of the product, moved menus around, changed familiar icons, was bigger, and slower to load, and didn't work so well on older PCs. After a period of stability with IE6 during which time it had around 80% market share, Microsoft has introduced IE7, IE8 and soon IE9 in quick succession which also discourages organisations from going through an expensive upgrade cycle. Better to wait a year and see if there is another new version on the horizon.
The Firefox browser first became popular by mimicing the then familiar IE6 interface but with the much-needed addition of tabs, It also addressed the security and rendering bugs which plagued IE6. It was lightweight, fast, and gave people what they wanted. Recent updates though have been criticised for bloating the browser and slowing down its load time. Firefox appears to be losing some of its market share, but to Google Chrome rather than Internet Explorer. Again, key features of Chrome that makes it attractive are that it is fast, simple, and it is consistent,... and that's what people want in a browser.
The most important statistic is that Microsoft's overall market share is now significantly reduced from its years of dominance with IE6, and that share is now split between three versions of its browser. On a typical day on our own server we would expect to see about 30% of our visitors using IE8, 20% on IE7, 15% on IE6, 15% on Firefox, 5% on Chrome, 5% on Safari, with a range of browser types making up the remaining 10%.
24th August 2010
This article comes from the SKILLZONE email newsletter, published monthly since January 2008, and covering topics related to technology and the internet. All articles and artwork in the SKILLZONE newsletter are orignal content.