IE 8 has been catching on since its release five months ago, but Microsoft is hoping to leave behind aging IE 6 as well as much-maligned Vista after Windows 7 operating system launches in October.<\/p>\n
Despite being released nine years ago, IE 6 still claims 27.2% of the browser market, according to figures released in July by Net Applications.<\/p>\n
“The reason to still be on IE 6 at this point is lack of awareness, or the ‘good-enough’ problem that people are satisfied with what they are using,” said Amy Barzdukas, general manager of IE and consumer security at Microsoft.<\/p>\n
“Particularly in this economy, it is difficult to be cavalier and just say update to IE 8.”<\/p>\n
Schools, hospitals and other cash-strapped operations could be daunted by the cost of upgrading computer systems to new software.<\/p>\n
IE 6 also tends to be used with pirated versions of Windows XP operating system because newer software is better designed to expose illegitimate copies, according to Barzdukas.<\/p>\n
Microsoft reports seeing more XP use in emerging economies such as Brazil and India where piracy rates are higher than in the United States.<\/p>\n
A drawback to people sticking with IE 6 is that Microsoft’s image can be maligned by software deficiencies that have been fixed in newer versions,” according to Barzdukas.<\/p>\n
“People can get frustrated with that experience and say Microsoft stinks, or IE stinks, and base that perception on technology released ten years ago,” Barzdukas told AFP during a visit this week to San Francisco.<\/p>\n
Microsoft on Thursday released NSS Labs research indicating that IE 8 excels at blocking phishing and malware attacks.<\/p>\n
In Microsoft-sponsored testing at a Texas lab, NSS found that IE 8 and an open-source Firefox browser from Mozilla tied for first place when it came to catching “social-engineering” phishing attacks.<\/p>\n
“Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox 3 were the most consistent in the high level of protection they offered,” the NSS study said.<\/p>\n
When it came to blocking malicious software, malware, IE 8 caught 81% of the “live threats” as compared with the 54% finish by the second-place Firefox browser.<\/p>\n
“I think our biggest area of concern in terms of competition is getting people onto a modern browser and protecting people from the bad guys,” Barzdukas said.<\/p>\n
“We don’t spend a lot of time worrying about what the other browsers are doing.”<\/p>\n
Google leapt into the browser wars last year with Chrome software that industry insiders suspect will mesh with a new operating system the California internet powerhouse plans to launch in 2010.<\/p>\n
Apple has long challenged Microsoft with operating systems and other software customized for Macintosh computers. Mozilla’s free Firefox web browsers based on open-source software have been gaining fans.<\/p>\n
Barzdukas said her team is “juiced” by competition in the browser market.<\/p>\n
“I think we have a great opportunity for the industry to evolve what the browser is able to do,” Barzdukas said.<\/p>\n
“IE is still the most broadly used browser in the world; we will continue to evolve. We are focused and here to play.”<\/p>\n
Microsoft this month abandoned a plan to strip IE 8 from versions of Windows 7 shipped to the European Union.<\/p>\n
Microsoft said it will instead present customers with a “ballot” option, allowing them to choose whether to install IE or another browser.<\/p>\n
Microsoft said the option had been tentatively welcomed by the European Commission, and received positive feedback from computer makers.<\/p>\n
The Brussels-based EU executive, which wields broad anti-trust powers, had called on Microsoft to open Windows to different internet browsers in order to fend off litigation.<\/p>\n