Microsoft's IE browser "retire" leads to industry changes?
Widely observed
On the evening of June 15, the Microsoft Edge browser announced on its official Weibo that Microsoft officially ended support for the web browsing software "Internet Explorer (IE browser)".
This means that the IE browser, which was born in 1995 with Windows 95, one of the most successful operating systems in Microsoft's history, will be officially "retired" in 2022.
"Goodbye IE!" Facing the withdrawal of IE browser, many netizens sent farewell messages one after another.
After the IE browser quits, what changes will the browser market usher in?
Text/Guangzhou Daily All Media Reporter Xu Xiaofang
The function is taken over by the Edge browser
According to reports, although Microsoft's IE browser is about to be retired, Microsoft will still bring continuous improvements to the "IE compatibility mode" of Microsoft Edge.
IE Mode in Microsoft Edge extends the use of legacy applications even after IE is disabled.
"The 2020s may really be a very special period of time throughout human history, and the retirement of IE is also a small star in the major events of this era. Many years later, our next generation, the next generation, may have I don’t know that IE ever existed, but at least today, at this moment, this is the last moment of IE, which is remembered by many people.” On June 15, Microsoft Edge browser said in its farewell Weibo.
According to the data, as the default browser of Windows 95, IE has rapidly occupied the market since its release in August 1995, and successfully became the browser with the largest market share in the world three years later, and even occupied 95% of the global market in 2003. Share, IE browser has also become the "youth memory" of many people.
"Welcome to Internet Explorer, and from now on, welcome to Microsoft Edge." The Microsoft Edge browser said that after the "retirement" of the IE browser, its functions will be taken over by the Edge browser.
According to the financial report released by Microsoft for the third quarter of fiscal year 2022 (that is, the first quarter of 2022), Microsoft’s revenue was US$49.4 billion, an increase of 18% year-on-year, and its net income reached US$16.7 billion, an increase of 8% year-on-year.
It is worth noting that the revenue of Microsoft's productivity and business process division was US$15.8 billion, an increase of 17% year-on-year. Among them, the revenue of Office commercial products and cloud services increased by 12%, mainly due to the 17% increase in Office 365 commercial revenue; more The personalized computing business had revenue of $14.5 billion, an increase of 11%; while Microsoft's intelligent cloud division, which includes Azure cloud services, SQL Server, Windows Server and other enterprise services, had revenue of $19.1 billion, an increase of 26% year-on-year, making it the largest Microsoft operating company. The sector with the largest contribution.
According to the 2021 global cloud computing IaaS (infrastructure as a service) market share data released by research firm Gartner, Microsoft ranks second with a market share of 21.07%, second only to Amazon.
Domestic browser brands are not in the top five
From the perspective of market conditions, in recent years, with the launch of Apple Safari, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and other browsers, IE browser has not developed Android and iOS platform versions, and its market share has declined significantly in the mobile Internet era.
According to the statistics website statcounter, from May 2021 to May 2022, Chrome, Safari, Edge, Firefox and Opera browsers are the top five browsers in the world.
Among them, Chrome has a market share of 64.95%, followed by Safari with a market share of 19.01%, while the "successor" Edge of the IE browser has a market share of less than 4%.
The top five browsers occupy a total of 96.52% of the market share, and the remaining 3.48% of the market share is shared by other browsers.
In other words, Internet Explorer, the "market hegemon" of the past, has now become part of the "other" brands.
The Tianyancha App shows that there are more than 770 "browser" related trademarks in China, including "Huawei browser", "QQ browser", "Cheetah browser", "UC browser", etc. The international classification includes scientific instruments, office supplies, Machinery and equipment, metal materials, etc.
Among them, more than 220 have been successfully registered, and nearly 300 are awaiting substantive examination.
Judging from the application time, the earliest one of the above trademark applications was filed in 2007, and the latest one was filed in April this year.
2020 and 2021 are the peaks of "browser"-related trademark applications, with more than 170 and 180 trademark applications respectively; since this year, there have been 29 trademark applications.
It is worth noting that the current domestic browser brands such as Huawei Browser, Sogou Browser, Cheetah Browser, 360 Speed Browser, QQ Browser, etc. have not been able to squeeze into the top five in the global ranking.