Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9 came out on the 14th. Firefox 4 came out a week later, on the 22nd. Both are excellent new browsers, but the launch reception has been much different.
According to Mozilla’s Firefox Download Tracker, as of right now the browser has been downloaded over 25 million times – and despite IE9’s one-week head start, Firefox 4 has passed it in overall browser market share.
I’ve written before that I really like what Microsoft has been doing recently: Windows 7, Windows Phone 7, Bing, and now IE9 are all excellent products. However, in many cases, the market seems to be a bit harder to convince, showing just how long a company’s reputation takes to change.
Hopefully, Microsoft can continue their recent track record of innovating (and personally, I still light a candle for the rumored-then-discontinued Courier tablet). In the meantime, excellent competition like Firefox and Google’s Chrome browser continue to innovate and improve at a rapid pace, pushing the entire industry towards better quality products.
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