14 DAY TRIAL // I did say that Internet Explorer 9 was THE Beta to try in 2010, and it appears that quite a lot of users agreed with me, since the mid-September 2010 release passed the 20 million downloads milestone in the three and a half months since it was launched. Microsoft shared the new statistics with the public at the start of 2011, as it provided an overview of the browser market, and the evolution of Internet Explorer.
While no usage figures have been provided by the Redmond company, Internet metrics outfit Net Applications indicates that the market share of IE9 Beta has climbed over the 0.5% in 2010.
“We also launched IE9 in 2010, and the response to the IE9 Beta launch on September 15th has been overwhelming. IE9 Beta has been downloaded 20 million times since launch in September, and IE9 now accounts for 0.46% of internet users worldwide at year end,” revealed Roger Capriotti, Director, Internet Explorer Product Marketing.
Most importantly, the once dominant IE6 is being dislodged at an increasing rate, which can only spell good news for the entire web, users and developers alike.
Capriotti notes that IE6 and IE7 were being used by 38.51% of internet users at the end of 2009. This while ahead of 2010, IE8 had managed to attract 24.15% of users worldwide.
“Fast forward twelve months later, IE6 and IE7 have shed over 40% of users and now only account for 22.98% of users worldwide - with IE6 hitting an all-time low of 13.81%. IE8 usage on the other hand has increased by almost 40% during the same time.
“Combined with the near half-percent of users of newly introduced IE9 Beta, the modern Internet Explorer browsers now account for 34.07% of users worldwide according to Net Applications,” he added.
Two additional Platform Preview releases, 6 and 7, were made available for download after IE9 Beta, indicating that the IE team was busy pushing Internet Explorer toward its next major milestone.
The Release Candidate (RC) Build is planned for delivery in early 2011, and at that point in time, users and developers will have at their disposal a milestone that is extremely close to RTW (release to web).
Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) Beta is available for download here.
Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) Platform Preview 7 (PP7) is available for download here.