SEATTLE: Microsoft Corp is releasing a new version of its Internet Explorer Web browser today, aiming to stem market share lost to Firefox, Google Inc's Chrome and Apple Inc's Safari.
Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, will mark the public release of a test version of Internet Explorer 9 at an event in San Francisco. The software offers support for HTML 5 technology and loads pages faster.
Internet Explorer's share of the browser market has fallen to 60 per cent from 74 per cent about two years earlier, as Firefox, Chrome and Safari gain ground, according to Net Applications. With Chrome usage up sevenfold, Microsoft needs to ensure that users keep their focus on the Windows operating system, rather than run programs through Google's browser, said Matt Rosoff, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft, a research firm in Kirkland, Washington.
"Based on developer buzz, it seems tech enthusiasts are more excited about IE 9 than any version of IE in recent times," Rosoff said. "We might start to see IE regain some market share from Firefox," whose growth has slowed, he said. "Chrome still seems to be the one people are most interested in, in terms of the cutting edge."
Market share for Firefox, made by Mozilla Corp, rose to 23 per cent last month from 19 per cent about two years earlier, according to Net Applications, which tracks Internet usage statistics. Chrome jumped to 7.5 per cent from 1.1 per cent, and Safari climbed to 5.2 per cent from 2.8 per cent.
New features
Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, had as much as 97 per cent of the Internet-browser market as recently as 2003.
Internet Explorer's HTML 5 support delivers high-quality video playback faster and lets users do things like open a virtual book and flip through its pages. The set of technologies may eventually replace Adobe Systems Inc's Flash and Microsoft's competing Silverlight, Rosoff said.
The new browser also is faster at loading and running applications written in JavaScript, an area where IE 8 was far slower than Chrome, Rosoff said.