Internet Explorer is one of the most popular web browsers in the world… because it’s the one that comes with Windows computers. But many individuals and businesses have a habit of running outdated versions of Internet Explorer because they never get around to updating the software.
Microsoft wants to provide a pretty strong incentive for people to make sure they’re running the latest version of the browser: Starting on January 12th, 2016 the company will only support the latest version of Internet Explorer available for an operating system.
Basically if you’re running Internet 8 or earlier on a Windows Vista or Windows 7 computer, you’ll have to update if you want to receive security and support updates. If you’re running a newer version of Windows, you’ll need to have Internet Explorer 11 installed.
Of course, just because Microsoft is ending support for Internet Explorer 8 and earlier doesn’t mean people will stop using them. The company pulled the plug on Windows XP recently… but plenty of people continue to use the operating system which first launched in 2001.
I’m sure it’s so they can offer an exciting new fee-based alternative.
You know… for the consumers.
But will it still matter what Microsoft does by 2016?
Maybe if you can explain to me how the company that today totally dominates the PC operating system market will become completely irrelevant in less than 18 months, I might be willing to consider your question.
But, of course, that’s not going to happen.
Agreed. Windows has a 74% market share, compared to Android’s 8%. Don’t be fooled into thinking that because all the mindless consumers out there are flocking to the $100 android tablets, that Microsoft will become irrelevant. Education, and Enterprise customers still represent an enormous market share.
Keep telling yourself that as Microsoft’s numbers continue to fall. There is a fresh breeze coming and we can already feel it.
Ya but not by 2016 in the comment everyone’s replying to.
By “fresh breeze” I assume you mean the stink called Chrome and Android coming from between Google’s butt cheeks? Get comfortable with Microsoft, because they are going to be around for a lonnnnnnnng time, pal. Chrome OS is not replacing Windows on the 90% of the worlds PC’s running it anytime soon.
In two years I agree, the monopoly won’t collapse that fast. Would bet at even odds on em being dominant in ten. But I would no longer give odds on the bet. They are in a precarious position and if change comes it will happen faster than any pundit (tech or financial) would ever guess. Really, they have been there since the turn of the century. Where do you go when you run out of up? Wall Street demands not just sales, they demand sales growth. Dividends are nice… for an officially granted government monopoly utility stock. Sales growth is king, followed a close second by revenue growth. That is what drives stock prices up. In 2000 Microsoft so utterly dominated the PC landscape the only growth they could even offer up as a possibility was the developing world and new markets like XBox and mobile.
They stagnated from the .bomb through the Great Recession but through slick BS escaped punishment. Now the FED induced bubble is keeping all stocks high and going up. But that situation is not sustainable.
Now lets evaluate their position. The entire PC market is flat and is more likely to decline than ever report a year with numbers equal to this one, either units shipped or net revenue per unit. So forget growth in Windows. Office isn’t going to grow anymore either so there goes the whole Desktop division as a driver of revenue growth. Servers are growing some as is sales of tools (Dev Studio, etc.) but can they make up losses elsewhere longterm on the server against Free Software? You would bet money on that?
XBox won the last round and if they ditch Kinnect and get price parity they will at least survive this round. But even winning gets you the crown in a declining market segment as console gaming in general is threatened by App games. The triple A titles that cost 50 plus million to produce and sell for $60+ per copy is going to shrink from here, not grow.
So where do they grow from here? And as soon as reality returns to Wall Street they are in trouble unless they have a credible answer to that question. The traders can destroy a company just as irrationally as they can bid up a startup with no revenue to billions. So that is the fear any MSFT investor faces.
And a large deploy user should also be preparing for the worst case scenario, of a Microsoft so desperate for revenues to show the pension fund managers that they begin to put extreme pressure on their customers to extract monopoly rents. At least have a Linux strategy fully fleshed out to use as a weapon at contract renewal time. Leaking a migration plan has worked wonders every time it has been attempted; remember that.
Thank goodness. Maybe, just maybe, HTML 5 and CSS3 will really take hold now. I want Flash video to die off as quickly as possible too and to be as free as we can of coding hacks and workarounds.
Few users are still on old IE versions because they “failed to update.” In most cases these users have in-house web applications that face challenges due to the Mozilla-drunk ranpage toward “stanadrds” – that of course broke all of the de-facto standards applications had been designed against. We need HTML5 and CSS3 to DIE, and quickly. It is time to leave these failed experiements behind before the ecosystem becomes even more damanged.
ROFLMAO! We need HTML 5 and CSS3 to die? Dude, are you in for a world of hurt and rejection. HA HA! What a good laugh before bed…You’ve lost all credibility and I can’t take you seriously…go to bed, you’re drunk!
What are you smoking? HTML 5 is the way of the future. LOL, I heard Michael Jackson, and Macromedia Flash are preparing some kind of Back-from-the-dead World Tour!