[Am-info] Internet Explorer consigned to the Trash

[John Bryan]

Surprised no comment on this.
So I'll venture with mine.

Maybe it has been hashed around enough and people didn't feel there was 
anything left to say.
I did feel it worth comment on this list in particular.

I don't know what to think about this.  My first thought was they are 
up to their same behavior.  Claiming that Apple had better ability to 
produce a web browser, (note not "internet file viewing capabilities" 
as OS functions), because they have an inside track on the OS itself, 
and that therefore why should MS bother trying to compete with that is 
certainly ironic.   Something I don't think went unappreciated by 
readers of this list.

Some have said, "hey, it was a business decision -- MS isn't making any 
money on it so why should they put resources into it?".  That's a lot 
of rubbish, IMO.  IE has ALWAYS been a non-direct-profit endeavor, 
regardless of platform.   I wonder if they would have terminated 
further non-maintenance/patches/etc IE development if Safari had not 
been introduced?   MS has no problems spending billions for as long as 
it takes to accomplish something.  They have financial resources to 
burn.  Xbox is an example.  MSNBC (tv) is another -- I don't know if 
that one is making any money, but they were to be burning $400M a year 
for the forseeable future when they first started that up.  I don't 
think Hotmail is a big cash cow either.   By their last financial 
report, I recall something like the only things that were actually 
making any money were Windows and Office.  Bottom line -- if they felt 
it was important to have IE on the Mac they would have continued with 
it for as long as necessary.   It would appear that it is no longer 
deemed necessary, and they no longer feel it is important to have IE on 
the Mac.  Why should they?  I saw a recent page of stats on the 
platforms and browsers that accessed google.com during May.  
http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html

92% I believe were Windows platforms, and while they don't give numbers 
on the browser stats, various versions of IE are the top 3, with IE 6 
increasing, and IE 4 being bottom out of those listed, "Other" 
appearing to be above various incarnations of Netscape/Mozilla.  
Granted this is one site, and it could be skewed maybe by people simply 
hitting Refresh 500 times -- who knows, but there is such a difference 
here that if with whatever statistical inaccuracies there might be with 
these measures, it is clear that Windows+IE is probably 90% of web 
traffic?  Can that really be true?  If so, then why should MS care 
about having IE on the Mac anymore?  It is not because they don't want 
to spend the money on something that they don't even actually sell, but 
rather they don't want to spend the money on something that doesn't 
gain them anything.   Again, though, why should they?  They are not a 
charity, they are a business, and why spend money on something that 
doesn't contribute to the goals?

MS have not been dragging their ass on IE for the Mac for some time, 
IMO.  The current version has been at a relative standstill for some 
time.  Certainly not since the heat of the browser war has there been 
the energy put into it.   Again, though, why should they?   There are 
things that IE does on the Mac that I haven't seen in other browsers, 
and granted I am not fully experienced in them all, nor even 
experienced at all -- save for Omniweb, a dalliance with Opera for OS 
X, iCab for OS 9 and OS X, Netscape (RIP), Mozilla, and perhaps a 
smattering of others.    I like the Save as Web Archive feature.  I 
know iCab does this, but the interface didn't appeal to me.  Ok, that 
is subjective.   I like the way in Print Preview that I can adjust the 
scaling in real time so I can see if I can maybe get something onto as 
few pages as possible.   IE on Windows doesn't do that, at least that I 
have been able to discern.  On Windows at work, I keep Opera around for 
pages that IE doesn't want to print the way I want.

I detest so much of what MS does, has done, and what they and theirs 
represent, but I for some time at home ended up using IE for the Mac 
exclusively because for me it was the better product.  Too bad it went 
stale.   Or not too bad.

I wondered if MS had done this to get back at Apple for Safari -- but 
maybe Apple did Safari because they knew IE was going away, or at least 
was on the table to be dropped.  Maybe there was a threat to drop IE if 
Apple announced iTunes Music Store for Windows.   MS doesn't take 
lightly interlopers on their turf.   Maybe Apple did (and is doing) 
Safari because they were not satisfied with the state of the web 
browser on OS X ?  Will probably never know.

JB


On Friday, June 13, 2003, at 03:54 PM, Mitch Stone wrote:

> http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/news_story.php?id=43191
>
> Internet Explorer consigned to the Trash
>
> Roz Ho, the general manager of Microsoft's Mac Business Unit, has 
> confirmed that no future versions of Internet Explorer will be 
> released for the Mac.
>
> Ho says that the decision has been made to make way for Apple's own 
> Safari browser. 'Some of the key customer requests for web browsing on 
> the Mac require close development between the browser and the OS, 
> something to which only Apple has access,' she explained.
>
> Rumours have been circulating for several weeks about the possible 
> demise of Internet Explorer (IE) on the Mac, following Microsoft's 
> decision to phase out standalone versions of IE for Windows.
>
> 'As part of the OS (operating system), IE will continue to evolve, but 
> there will be no future standalone installations. IE6 SP1 is the final 
> standalone installation,' Microsoft's Brian Countryman said in a 
> recent interview.
>
> Ho confirmed, however, that the company would continue to support 
> Internet Explorer 5 for the Mac for the foreseeable future.
>
> The full text of the interview with Roz Ho will appear in MacUser 
> magazine, Vol 19 No 13, dated 27 June.