Microsoft has insisted that the UK has chosen Internet Explorer, with the company launching IE8 into what it terms a 'competitive market'.
There is ongoing controversy over the bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows – the world's most popular operating system - with the European Commission looking into a complaint by rival browser maker Opera that the practice is anti-competitive.
Microsoft has indicated that it may include an option in Windows 7 that will allow people to choose to switch off IE and opt for another browser, but John Curran – who is Windows Business Group Lead in the UK – said that this has yet to be confirmed.
Choice already exists
"Windows 7 is still in development," he told TechRadar. "There are certain topics of conversation to be had in terms of how it manifests itself and we are working through all of that and will have more as we get closer to the launch.
"What I would say on the question of choice is that choice exists right now. "Fundamentally we see market share movement in the UK market share of plus or minus a per cent a month and so it's a highly dynamic movement.
"The ability for choice is there today."
UK Choosing IE?
Despite Firefox becoming far stronger in the market over the past year, and Internet Explorer accused of benefiting from being a default in the Windows OS, Curran insisted that the UK is 'choosing IE'.
"For us we have people using everything from IE5 to IE8 right now, so fundamentally we have people choosing to go from IE6 to IE7 and so on, so people are making the decision to go to IE - that's a conscious download for those people," said Curran.
"In the UK we have 80 per cent of browser share so if you ask are more people moving away or moving to [IE] then someone looking at that share would draw a logical conclusion that the movement goes more in one direction than the other."
Falling
"Year on year we're down slightly and I do think that that's a sign of a competitive market," confirmed Curran when pressed on the decline in market share.
"IE7 is getting on in age. For a lot of people back on IE6 or IE5 then [those products] are certainly getting on and you've got a lot of competitive offerings out there.
"We are developing and we think IE8 is a product that people will choose to go to and our job is to get people onto it because we think that when people get on to it they are going to love this product and so fundamentally that's our approach."
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lovlid
March 21st
3. "In retrospect, there are less tech savvy people in UK compared to say, the US"
Are you saying we are stupid compared to the US? There are more IE users in the WORLD than users of any other browser. So, are we the dumbest country in the world? Is there a country in the world that has the majority using another browser, making them the most Intelligent country in the world? No, No and No.
I use Firefox, but Im not so arrogant that I would infer that IE users are "less tech savvy". What an absolutely patronising thing to say.
"We don't choose to USE IE, it is governed by Microsoft's monopoly affect on the country"
Again, the implication we are too dumb to choose. People know about the alternatives, especially Firefox, because thousands of sites have links to it, and plenty of computer magazines make it their browser of choice.
"nobody CHOSE IE, it was installed by default"
There are plenty of programs installed on a new computer. How many are you still using. I've just checked mine and its three. I didn't feel obligated to carry on using what was there already, I "Chose" to use something else.
You two, (grimfandango and mrgrant) are not better than anyone else just because you found a browser you prefer over IE. The rest of us are quite capable of making our own minds up.
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mrgrant
March 20th
2. No. In retrospect, there are less tech savvy people in UK compared to say, the US.
If this report showed true ratio's of population to those using IE/FF/Opera/Safari then we'd have a better figure to work on.
This is also the fact that mainstream businesses have partnership deals with Microsoft and will use IE by default because it will tie in with the windows network infrastructure and applicable policies.
We don't choose to USE IE, it is governed by Microsoft's monopoly affect on the country.
Luckily, Firefox and Opera (maybe others) can be made portable and downloaded easily for use off USB pen drives and even ran from My Documents (as I have) but can face disciplinary actions because I'm trying to keep my internet browsing secure?
Lets change the survey to "What would UK prefer to use" and direct it to people who know what they're doing with a PC
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grimfandango
March 19th
1. nobody CHOSE IE, it was installed by default!
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