14 DAY TRIAL // When contrasted to Internet Explorer, it's as if alternative browsers such as the Mozilla's open source Firefox and Apple's Mac OS X Safari didn't even exist. And this is not a question of browser market share or usage rate. It is simply a comparison of the impact that the three separate products delivered on the world in the past 25 years. According to a survey put together by the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA), IE was voted the most influential technology product of the last quarter century.
"Internet Explorer was selected as the most influential product of the past quarter-century by 66 percent of the IT professionals surveyed. The first version of the browser launched in 1995, and by 1999 Internet Explorer had become the markets predominant Web browser, a position it still holds today," CompTIA stated in a press release, adding that "products developed by Microsoft claimed four of the top five spots in the poll of information technology (IT) industry professionals, conducted in conjunction with the 25th anniversary of CompTIA."
As a matter of fact Microsoft dominates the top five most influential products with just one exception. Apple's iPod is the only device that spoiled Microsoft's otherwise perfect run. Following Internet Explorer in the ranking compiled by CompTIA is Microsoft Word. The Redmond company's word processing application is the second most influential product in the past 25 years thanks to the votes of 56% of the respondents.
And according to the votes of half of the participants in the survey, Windows 95 came in the third position. "Tied for fourth place on the list of most influential products, applications or technologies of the past 25 years were the Apple iPod and Microsoft Excel, at 49 percent each. More than 100 million iPods have been sold since the portable digital media player launched in 2001; and more than 1.5 billion songs have been purchased from the Apple's iTunes online store," CompTIA added.