Microsoft’s decision to
begin updating Internet Explorer browsers to overcome update fatigue
and a painstakingly slow upgrade rate is a major update for the browser.
The company will introduce the feature in some geographies in January
and scale it from there to be able to fend off Google’s Chrome.
Microsoft,
Mozilla and Google have very different approaches to market their web
browsers. Both Mozilla and Google have been severely impacted by
Google’s aggressive strategy to drive Chrome to computers. Mozilla is
still struggling with the changes it decided to make to its development
process earlier this year and it seems as if Mozilla’s worries could get
worse as Microsoft is preparing itself for a browser battle with
Google.
Microsoft announced that it will be launching a silent update feature
for IE8 and IE9 in January, which will be limited to Australia and
Brazil initially, apparently for testing purposes, and scale from there.
The process will work similarly to the silent Windows Update process
and inform users when an update is ready to install. Users who declined
updates previously will not be updated to new browser versions
automatically. Of course, there is still the controversy that silent
updates remove authority from users to decide when it is time to upgrade
browsers and when not. However, there is no denying that automated
browser updates most likely improve the security of a browser on a
client system, automated updates are a great marketing tool to deliver
the perception of an always fresh browser and, of course, it helps
Microsoft to avoid scenarios in which it gets stuck with an old browser
it can rid of – such as IE6. If there is one browser that shows evidence
of update fatigue, it certainly is IE.
A defense against Google, a problem for Mozilla
This particular feature that will support IE8 and IE9 systems will
also help Microsoft to move its users faster from IE8 to IE9. IE8 just
lost its role as most popular browser to Chrome (15) this month, with a
share of 22.28% to 23.94%, according to StatCounter. 10 months after its
introduction, IE9 has a share of just 10.42%. Even on Windows 7
systems, a heavily marketed platform for IE9, the browser has less than
25% share. Market share trends suggest that virtually all of its market
share losses are turned into gains for Chrome. As long as Microsoft can
get IE6 and IE7 users to IE8, it has now a direct upgrade path to
IE9/IE10 and Windows 7/Windows 8. Conceivably, the silent update for IE
has been overdue for quite a while and should have been introduced with
IE9 earlier this year. Silent updates could have kept a significant
number of mainstream users from switching to Chrome.
Mozilla has had a tough 2011 already, but this announcement may be
the icing on the cake. Mozilla has been working on the silent update for
months and just announced that the feature has been pushed back to
version 11, which will not be released until March 13, 2012. With Google
and Microsoft bringing out the big guns and two giants quite obviously
positioning their artillery on a growing battlefield, Mozilla’s role has
changed from being a challenger to an outsider. That can be good news
as some of the focus on Mozilla fades and it has an opportunity to
rebuild itself in 2012. However, it won’t have a substantial impact in
2012 as IE9/10 and Chrome will be drawing all the attention and there is
a good chance that IE9/10 will look more attractive next year than IE
has in more than 15 years.
Wolfgang Gruener in Products on December 15
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