Market adoption

[edit] Usage share

Further information: Usage share of web browsers

Usage share of Internet Explorer, 1994–2007^[12]

The adoption rate of Internet Explorer seems to be closely related to that of Microsoft Windows, as it is the default web browser that comes with Windows. Since the integration of Internet Explorer 2.0 with Windows 95 OSR 1 in 1996, and especially after version 4.0's release, the adoption was greatly accelerated: from below 20% in 1996 to about 40% in 1998 and over 80% in 2000. This effect, however, has recently been dubbed the "Microsoft monoculture", by analogy to the problems associated with lack of biodiversity in an ecosystem. By 2002, Internet Explorer had almost completely superseded its main rival Netscape and dominated the market.

After having fought and won the browser wars of the late 1990s, Internet Explorer began to see its usage share shrink. Having attained a peak of about 95% during 2002 and 2003, it has since been in a slow, steady decline, due to the adoption of Mozilla Firefox, which statistics indicate is currently the most significant competition. Nevertheless, Internet Explorer remains the dominant web browser, with a global usage share of around 83% (based on statistics reference). Usage is higher in Asia and lower in Europe. For example, the share is around 94% in Japan,^[13] and around 56% in Germany.^[14]

[edit] Industry adoption

ActiveX is used by many public websites and web applications, including eBay. Similarly, Browser Helper Objects are also used by many search engine companies and third parties for creating add-ons that access their services, for example, search engine toolbars. Because of the use of COM, it is possible to include web-browsing functionality in third-party applications. Hence, there are a number of Internet Explorer shells, and a number of content-centric applications like RealPlayer also use Internet Explorer's web browsing module for viewing web pages within the applications.

Some exhibits used by theme parks and other venues involving "activities" use Internet Explorer. For instance, the interactive video games at an exhibit in Epcot in Bay Lake, Florida use Internet Explorer [2].

[edit] OS compatibility

IE versions have widely varying OS compatibility, ranging from being available for many platforms and several versions of Windows to just a couple versions of Windows. Many versions of IE had some support for an older OS but stopped getting updates. The increased growth of the Internet in the 1990s and 2000s means that current browsers with small market shares have more total users than the entire market early on. For example, 90% market share in 1997 would be roughly 60 million^[15] users, but by the start of 2007 90% market share would equate to over 900 million users.^[16] The result is that later versions of IE6 had many more users in total than all the early versions put together. The release of IE7 at the end of 2006 resulted in a collapse of IE6 market share; by February 2007 market version share statistics showed IE6 at about 50% and IE7 at 29%.^[17] Regardless of the actual market share, the most compatible version of IE was version IE5, which had Mac, Unix, and most versions of Windows available and supported for a short period in the late 1990s. By 2007, IE had a much narrower OS support, with the latest versions supporting only Windows XP Service Pack 2 and above.

It's not possible to run most older versions of IE if a new version is already installed, even if the standalone installers are available. Since newer versions of IE are installed by default, its not possible using Microsoft downloads and installers to use older versions, even when they are available. The result is that, using Microsoft offered installation methods, the previous version is impossible to run on a new machine. For example, though it was possible to run IE6 on Windows XP, its no longer possible using Microsoft installs and downloads for systems that have IE7 installed.

Browser	Years	Windows Vista	Windows XP	Windows 2000	Windows 98/ME	Windows NT 4.0	Windows 95	Windows 3.1	IBM OS/2	Mac OS X (Intel/PPC)	Mac OS 9	Mac OS 8	System 7 (PPC/68k)	Unix (HP-UX, Solaris)
Years (OS)	-	2006	2001	2000	1998	1996	1995	1992	1988	2001	1999	1997	1991	(1990s)
IE 7	2006	Included	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
IE 6 (Trident)	2001-2004	No	Included (6.0 SP2)*	Yes (6.0 SP1)	Dropped (6.0 SP1)	Dropped (6.0 SP1)	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
IE 4.0	1997-1998	No	No	Included (5.01)	Included (4.01/5.5 SP2)	Yes	Included**	Yes	Unknown	Dropped (5.2.3) Included	Dropped (5.2.3) Included	Dropped (5.1.7)	Dropped (5.1.7)	Dropped * (5.01 SP1)
IE 5.0	1998-2000
IE 3.0	1996-1997	No	No	No	Yes	Included	Included**	Yes	Unknown	No	Yes	Included	Yes	Yes *
IE 2.0	1995	No	No	No	Yes	Included (2.0)	Included**	Yes	No	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Beta (2.0)	No
IE 1.0	1995	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
IE for Mac (Tasman)	1997-2003	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Terminated (5.2.3)	Dropped (5.1.7)	Dropped (5.1.7)	No	No
IE for UNIX		No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Terminated (5.01 SP1)

^[18][19]

^* Internet Explorer 6 SP2 is only available as part of a standalone Windows XP SP2.
^** The version of Internet Explorer included with Windows 95 varied by OSR release; 2.0 was included with OSR1, 3.0 was included with OSR2, and 4.0 was included with OSR2.5.