Microsoft said Wednesday that its Internet Explorer 9 browser was downloaded 2.35 million times in the first 24 hours since it become available to the public Monday night. However, this is just a trickle compared to the numbers Microsoft will begin to rack up next Tuesday, when it begins to automatically update Vista, Windows Server 2008, and Windows 7 users to the new browser as part of its regular Patch Tuesday.
Not to be outdone, Mozilla confirmed Wednesday that its new Firefox 4 browser will begin shipping next Tuesday. With Google also recently releasing a major upgrade to its Chrome browser, this is certainly a great time for web users because the competition for the best browser has really advanced, noted Al Hilwa, director of applications development software at IDC.
“The depth and reach of the all the modern browsers is stunning, with great improvements in usability, performance and, perhaps most surprisingly, standards compliance,” Hilwa explained. “There is definitely differentiation, but it is increasingly more subtle and over time the leapfrogging will continue to give us better products on faster cycles.”
Closing the Gap
Mozilla’s developers have certainly upped their game with Firefox 4 and are trying hard to fight the battle with Chrome for the power user, where Chrome has gained share. “I think this release will help them tremendously,” Hilwa said. “IE9 has had a long development cycle, but a lot has changed since it was first announced.”
The level of HTML5 support that Microsoft announced just a few months ago was a real surprise and represented an unexpected ramping up of support for the new standard, Hilwa noted. “At this point, IE9 appears to have now closed the gap in HTML5 compliance for the most part and has made great strides in performance due to its strong hardware-acceleration architecture,” Hilwa explained.
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