Can Microsoft really build a better browser?

Internet Explorer 9 is looking promising. But it’s up against stiff competition, and that competition isn’t standing still. Can Microsoft actually move fast enough to keep its browser relevant, or does its corporate culture of stable, solid, immutable platforms stand in the way of regaining the success the company once had?

…And most significantly, these improvements are now in people’s hands. 10.50 isn’t some preview release. It’s a released, stable version of the browser.

This isn’t the first time this has happened, either. Redmond promoted the JavaScript performance of IE8 in the run-up to its release, too. The result? By the time IE8 was released, or shortly after, competing browsers had once again overtaken it, with stable, shipping versions outpacing Microsoft’s efforts.
By taking the approach of infrequent, but substantial releases, Internet Explorer users are being denied timely access to much of the progress that Microsoft is making, and hence denied the ability to take advantage of IE9’s greater standards compliance.
We see similar situations, albeit with fewer easy-to-use graphs, when we look at how well other browsers implement SVG, or CSS, or HTML5. The current stable releases of Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and Opera are all streets ahead of the current stable version of IE. Make no mistake: these other browsers do…

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Can Microsoft really build a better browser?

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  4. Opera’s Bid to Become an iPhone Browser
  5. IE9, standards, and why Acid3 isn’t the priority

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010 at 6:43 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.

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