<IT WORLD> Explorer puts on power By Martin J
Young
HUA HIN, Thailand - The browser wars
saw a flurry of activity this week as Microsoft
launched the beta version of Internet Explorer 9
in an effort to reclaim some of the market share
lost to rival browsers Firefox and Chrome.
Over the past few years, Mozilla's Firefox
and more recently Google's Chrome have been
chipping away at IE's dominance, pulling it from a
once lofty 95% market share, when its only
competitors were Aol and Netscape, down to
somewhere around 60% . Redmond, Washington-based
Microsoft hopes that IE9 will see the beginning of
the fight-back.
Earlier versions of
Internet Explorer, namely 6 and 7, were riddled
with security holes and had a number of other
problems such as the non-standard rendering of web
pages and code, sluggish
performance, and
instability. Many of these issues had been fixed
with IE8, but the damage had been done and a lot
of people had already made the switch to
alternative browsers.
With IE9, Microsoft
is not only battling its competitors, it is also
competing against its own software as the company
continues to urge customers to drop IE 6 and 7.
Microsoft has already stated that IE9 will not run
on Windows XP, which could potentially leave
millions of computers open to Mozilla or Google
for their up-to-date browsing needs.
With
a strong focus on Windows 7, the new browser
boasts impressive hardware acceleration
capabilities that aim to use more of a computer's
processing and graphics power to render websites.
Unfortunately, the masses who have refused to
upgrade from the diehard XP operating system will
be stuck with IE8.
Many business clients
also continue to stick with XP and IE6 as a lot of
them have specific software and processes that
will run only on the ageing browser. When
Microsoft beefed up the security on IE7, many
corporations did not upgrade due to reliance on
the previous platform for their custom-built
applications and operations as these simply did
not work in newer versions of IE.
This
doesn't seem to be of concern to Microsoft, which
is forging ahead with a strong Windows 7 and IE9
partnership. The new browser will offer dramatic
performance increases and HTML 5 compatibility
according to the company blurb: "Today's websites
and browsers only use about 10% of the processing
power your PC has to offer. Internet Explorer 9
unlocks the other 90%."
By tapping into
the graphics processing power, specifically on
those machines with decent Nvidia or AMD graphics
cards, it will display clearer and more enhanced
graphics and play high definition video smoother
... providing you have a fast enough Internet
connection to stream the stuff.
There is
also a performance monitor that enables users to
check and disable any add-ons or plugins that slow
browser performance; this is a welcome addition
from which Firefox users would greatly benefit.
Whether consumers intend to test-drive the
new version (which can be downloaded here,
convert to it completely on official release in a
few months time, or stay with Firefox or Chrome,
they will be in for a treat as increased
competition between free software is never a bad
thing.
Telecoms Taiwanese firm
HTC has launched two more handsets to challenge
the iPhone 4 following Nokia's release of three
new models this week. The Desire HD has a large
4.3-inch screen and the Desire Z a foldout
keyboard. Both devices will be loaded with the
latest version of Google's Android.
The
units will also be loaded with HTC Sense, a new
application that includes a web-based portal that
lets one back-up, access, wipe, or locate one's
Android-based phone from the PC. Apple has a
similar system called MobileMe, although it comes
at an additional cost. Security continues to play
a greater role in mobile handset development as
more and more users are storing personal data on
the devices.
Google has been supportive of
HTC and its product development, saying, "Android
is about choice, and the new HTC smart-phones
continue to provide customers with powerful
choices and flexibility."
Choice seems to
be a key consideration for consumers too. Research
firm Gartner projected that Apple will sell 130
million iOS-based mobile devices per year by 2014
but sales for Android-powered devices will reach
259 million units.
Martin J Young is an Asia Times Online correspondent based in Thailand.
(Copyright 2010
Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights
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