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Microsoft: No new versions of IE for Mac

Posted by malebolgia on 14 June 2003 - 09:58 · 17 comments & 1066 views

Microsoft said Friday that it is halting development of future Macintosh versions of its Internet Explorer browser, citing competition from Apple Computer's Safari browser.

Although Microsoft may continue to provide security and performance updates, no major new releases are planned, Microsoft Product Manager Jessica Sommer told CNET News.com. Sommer said that, with the emergence of Apple's Safari browser, Microsoft felt that customers were better served by using Apple's browser, noting that Microsoft does not have the access to the Macintosh operating system that it would need to compete.

"No IE 6 is planned," Sommer said in a telephone interview. "Safari is turning into a better answer for (Apple) customers."

On the Windows side, Microsoft has said that it will stop development of standalone versions of Internet Explorer, instead evolving the browser as part of future updates to the Windows OS.

Apple has released several test versions of Safari, but the final 1.0 version of the browser has not yet appeared.

News source: News.com

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#1 Posted by Dazzla on 14 Jun 2003 - 10:02: The first sign of real competition and they flee?

Then again I guess it fits into the whole IE is part of the OS and can't be used on anything else argument...

(2 replies) #2 Posted by Mr magoo on 14 Jun 2003 - 10:16: true, but it could be that they are changing thier business strategy- i admit it seems v strange for MS to be doing this...

#3 Posted by h0ax on 14 Jun 2003 - 10:21: yes!

#4 Posted by Wickedkitten on 14 Jun 2003 - 10:57: good riddance, the only thing decent for the mac that MS makes is Office X and the new version of that will be in beta later this summer! woooooooooo give it up for the Microsoft Mac Business Unit!

Last edited by 799 on 14 Jun 2003 - 11:04

(1 reply) #5 Posted by Joshie on 14 Jun 2003 - 12:17: So I guess IE is becoming like that built-in browser in KDE. That'd be neato. I never minded going between Mozilla and the KDE browser (I can't for the life of me remember what it was called) for whatever reason I had for doing so, though I'll bet eleventy bajillion dollars people would gripe about going between Explorer and an alternate in Windows down the road.

(2 replies) #6 Posted by ThunderRiver on 14 Jun 2003 - 13:53: lol what ya talking about? When you buy a new version of Windows, IE is already built-in.

Safari does pose threat to Microsoft IE, so it is reasonable to quit that market. Very soon, Apple will most likely come up with their own version of Office. By then, MS will say good bye to Office X as well.

(1 reply) #7 Posted by Webgraph on 14 Jun 2003 - 18:35: Well that's a good sign of Microsoft about to lose some popularity with its web browsers. Right now, it might be about 95%, but it might go down to 85% by September. But then again, Apple PC's can't be self-built and their units are still a little costly in comparison to the X86 counterparts. If Apple would only let people build Mac's by themselves and/or chop down their prices further, then Apple can pose a threat to the OS market once again. Also, Linux needs to attract more software developers before people will actually use it. Linux itself can be used without Windows without causing a lot of difficulty thanks to the half decent hardware support, but it's the software that will kill Linux for a while. If Linux can do that, then the OS market will face some stiff competition by the time Longhorn is released. And maybe Mac OS 11 (or XI) may make its interface slightly less confusing for those who are trying to ditch Windows!

#8 Posted by dmd3x on 14 Jun 2003 - 21:25: I bet most Mac users won't even care. All the people I know that use Macs dont use IE, they use Mozilla.

#9 Posted by malebolgia on 14 Jun 2003 - 21:50: I think it's a mistake by Microsoft’s part by dropping IE support and basically how they have stopped the standalone product of IE in all this mess. Still I see Steve Jobs with a huge smile on his face today.

#10 Posted by Mgz on 15 Jun 2003 - 02:04: Mozilla and KHTML folks will be very happy

#11 Posted by David3k on 16 Jun 2003 - 03:54: I only use Mozilla on my Mac but not on my PC. Why?

tis more compatible with my games that way

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