Microsoft Internet Explorer has had a good ride. It’s had fun while it lasted. However, I’m afraid now the only reason they have any sort of a market share is because Microsoft sells it’s desktop & laptops so cheap that if you were to open a office or currently have one it’s not worth the hassle to switch.
With a variety of new web technologies like HTML5, the 8th edition of Internet Explorer for example doesn’t support it. With 19% of the websites out there now being run on WordPress (this will only increase) we find that earlier versions of Internet Explorer find it hard to process load around 60% of these sites if compatibility issues are not addressed properly. Compatibility testing is needed to make sure your site works on Internet Explorer whereas Chrome, Firefox & Safari all work perfectly fine each time.
Whats the reason for this?
Google & Mozilla for example pay independent security researchers to check for bugs. Microsoft don’t do this. They are such a big corporation now that they work in house to fix issues and therefore aren’t motivated to change. They also fix bugs on a schedule, whereas other browsers are more fluid & allow changes to be made whenever they are needed.
Market share decrease
Have a look at the below graph, you can see how IE’s share has decreased substantially over the last few years
In September 2008, IE had 67.16%, Google Chrome had 1.03%, Mozilla’s Firefox had 25.77% & Apples Safari had 3.00%. Now from last month, October 2013 IE has 28.96%, Chrome 40.44%, Firefox 18.11% & Safari 8.54%. As you can see by these stats the shift is significant.
How is this going to stop?
In my personal opinion the rise of Mobile & the poor usability of Internet Explorer will only mean the decline will not stop. It will eventually become redundant. The functionality of IE has been imporved in the newer additions & they have gone back to the drawing board to build from scratch but I still don’t think this will be enough to stop the decline when Google & Mozilla’s absolute priority is making sure their browser is the best.
How does it affect your business
If you are a business owner and are getting a website built you need to make sure there is compatibility testing, if a potential customer reaches your site & bits of it don’t work they will be instantly put off and you will lose business.
Our Advice
If you are a business owner & your staff current use IE. Make the change to Google Chrome. It’s quick, virus free & easy to use. Having Internet Explorer will only cause issues and frustration for less tech savvy members of staff that don’t know there are any other options out there.
