Microsoft says it is halting development of future Macintosh versions of its Internet Explorer browser, citing competition from Apple Computer’s Safari browser. And God knows Microsoft doesn’t like competition.
“Although Microsoft may continue to provide security and performance updates, no major new releases are planned, Microsoft Product Manager Jessica Sommer told CNET News.com. Sommer said that with the emergence of Apple’s Safari browser, Microsoft felt customers were better served by using Apple’s browser, noting that Microsoft does not have the access to the Macintosh operating system that it would need to compete. ‘No IE 6 is planned,’ Sommer said in a telephone interview. ‘Safari is turning into a better answer for…customers,'” CNET reports.
“On the Windows side, Microsoft has said that it will stop development of standalone versions of Internet Explorer, instead evolving the browser as part of future updates to the Windows OS. Apple has released several beta versions of Safari but the final 1.0 version of the browser has not yet appeared,” reports Ian Fied for CNET News.com. “Microsoft plans to keep the existing versions of IE available on its Mac Web site. The company is releasing a minor upgrade– IE version 5.2.3–to the OS X browser on Monday, and a minor update to the Mac OS 9 version of the browser will also come within the next month, but it is unclear how many releases will follow. ‘It depends as things come up,’ Sommer said.”
“The company had agreed to provide Mac versions of the browser–as well as its Office suite–as part of a five-year deal with Apple that has now lapsed. Microsoft said in April 2002 that it would continue to develop Mac software but would only commit one version at a time, and would make its decisions based on whether such products make business sense. However, Sommer said that the company is moving ahead with the next version of Office,” Fried reports.
“‘We are absolutely still on track with Office,’ Sommer said. ‘We’re working on the next version of Office. We are working on the next version of Virtual PC for the Mac.’ Sommer would not say, however, when those programs would arrive. Microsoft acquired Virtual PC–which lets Windows programs run on the Mac–and other assets of Connectix in February. An Apple representative was not immediately available for comment,” Fried reports. Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: So now the 3.6% of Mac users still using IE with Mac OS X to visit MacDailyNews will have to make plans to wake up or continue using IE until it rots. Who cares? NeXT up? iOffice from Apple we hope, we hope, we hope…
“Do not buy Microsoft software because they do not care about you in the least. Ask any Mac owner who was stuck for years with the default Internet Explorer for the Mac slowly rendering quarter, half, or three-quarter, but rarely full pages. Hey, who cares? Mac users can wait. And just jiggle the resize tab on the browser’s bottom right corner if you want to see the whole page,” wrote SteveJack, May 16, 2003. Full article, “Mac users should not buy Microsoft software,” here.
Yawn. IE for Mac sucks, like most Microsoft products. Wonder how long it’ll take before they kill Virtual PC for Mac?
Oh no! What am I gonna do now!!! Oh yeah:
http://www.apple.com/safari/
I’ll have to make do with 10X faster rendering, tabs, nice asthetics, superior bookmarking, etc., etc., etc…
Microsoft touts it’s user base as if it were their number of soldiers – the size of their force. They are just users; more like passengers on a cruise ship. Once they realize they are riding a bloated, outdated, vessel that is struggling to follow Apple’s technology and features, more MS users will transfer over.
The saddest thing is that as the distance widens, the differences will widen, and people will be more apprehensive to move to something so different, even if it does offer advanced features.
Apple does NOT need to be bigger than MS, just better. Everything else that is good will follow. This is why Apple doesn’t advertise like a used car dealer. Apple’s users do a much better (and cheaper) job of advertising than any lame Dell-like ad could do.
Good bye, MS. Your crashes, reboots, and thousands of virii will not be missed!!
Surprise, surprise……M$, in it’s need to control everything, decides that since it cannot make it’s “browser” for the Mac give them any information, then they’ll just take it off the market……..oh, well.
Those who thought Micro$not believed in the Mac platform also think that everyone should think all the same, in the box….oh, we’re talking the mantra of M$ users…….excuse me…….let’em take a inferior product if they will; besides, who needs that crap when you not only have the Safari, but also Mozilla if you want it……
Even sadder is that most people still using Internet Explorer for Mac will be clueless that it is no longer being updated. They also haven’t the slightest idea that anything other than IE for Mac exists. “What’s Mozilla?” they say. Or “Camino? I had one of those in High School”… or “iCab.. is that a cab I drive myself?”
But then again, those are probably the same people still using OS 8 and OS 9.
-Zack
http://www.macpulse.com/
Have not used it since Safari came out. Slow, slow, slow…
I’m afraid that we’re going to find out Microsoft and Apple are in cohoots together somewhere down the road. Just look at these facts:
When Apple was in serious trouble, Microsoft financially bailed them out (uncharacteristically generous of MS– they could’ve gone in for the kill then)
Apple nor MS never spout a bad word about each other (prior to that bailout, I remember rumblings from each camp towards the other)
By dissolving IE for Mac under these pretenses, and no less than promoting Safari in it’s press release, it opens the way for MS to thwart the DOJ’s ruling in upcoming releases of the Windows OS.
I see an unspoken “no compete” clause in effect: where’s the MS ipod??? (they’re in every other part of the consumer market, but suspiciously absent here) Jobs’ “no pda” issue– opens MS to squash Palm while continuing with PocketPC?
… something’s not right here (and it isn’t my befuddled mind)
WOOHOO!!!
SEE YA!
When Apple was in serious trouble, Microsoft financially bailed them out (uncharacteristically generous of MS– they could’ve gone in for the kill then)
The misinformed continue to spread this myth. Please read up on the reality of why those events took place.
Zack, even OSniners have alternatives, and I think if you own a mac it is a sign of at least half a brain (on my case 65%) to know you have them.
rageous, no challenge, just seeking information: links on those events?
rageous please explain further
Correct… OSniners do have alternatives as well.
My apologies for offending anyone using the Classic OS and Internet Explorer. I didn’t mean to ignorantly group everyone using IE into one category
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-Zack
Yeah, rageous
Please explain what you mean by:
‘The misinformed continue to spread this myth. Please read up on the reality of why those events took place.’
When everyone reads this from: ‘conspiracytheory’:
[When Apple was in serious trouble, Microsoft financially bailed them out…]
What does that mean, EXACTLY?
You don’t mean that Apple was ‘bailed out’/bought by M$ for a paltry $150M – just like a year later when Apple ‘bailed out’ Samsung by ‘investing’ $200M (for LCDs) or when M$ ‘bailed out’ Corel for a mere $200M?
Dorks, if M$ ‘owns’ Apple’, then Apple ‘owns’ Samsung.
I wonder if the boys at Samsung know that they work for ‘The Steve’?
Kids, watch how silent it gets regarding THIS subject. When confronted with a smidgen of truth, long-eared horse-like mammals can bray-up all the noise they can muster, but they head for the barn when the truth is bigger than their bullshite.
There is some big game out there to catch! Safari time!
Typical answer from Monopolosoft. Instead of making their product better (making it compete), they bail out. M$ could have spent the YEARS of advantage they had making IE better, but they didn’t. Safari, a relative newcomer, layed the smack-down on IE in terms of performance.
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Wouldn’t Safari for Windows be funny? “Oh No!!! Since Safari is SOOO much better than IE, we give up” . Yeah, right
M$ is pathetic.
It is too late to cause any damage by pulling IE. Had microsoft done it a couple of years ago, it might have been a problem. Now – who cares? I don’t know anyone using IE on OS X. It’s an antiquated browser with no pop-up blocking and no tabbed browsing.
I don’t even use IE on my PC – Mozilla Firebird is prettier, and it supports tabbed browsing and pop-up blocking. It’s the next best thing to Safari on a PC.
Now this in an interesting statement by M$ (although a bit out of context…) “Microsoft felt customers were better served by using Apple”
Just for the record: The agreement between Apple and Microsoft was a settlement of long standing infringement lawsuits resulting from the original licensing of the Mac code to Microsoft that created Windows in the first place. Like all of Microsoft’s products, Windows was something invented by someone else, namely Apple. So the “bailout” of Apple was really a chance for Microsoft and Apple to avoid the costs of endless litigation. The truth is Microsoft got off cheap.
dug is correct
Why does this surprise people? This is just the other shoe that dropped.
Did anyone read the story that Microsoft its dropping a stand-alone IE for Windows and integrating it into the Windows OS “to obtain better functionality?” Last time Microsoft tried this all of the 3rd party browser developers screamed. This time I have not heard a wimper.
Moreover, this comes right on the heels of Microsoft’s settlement with AOL-Time Warner, owners of Netscape. How special! Is this a prelude for an announcement from Netscape in the future? Has Netscape seen the “writing on the wall”, looked at its “bottom line” and decided to “give it up” and declare Microsoft the “winner”? This is only speculation right now. It should be interesting to see what actually happens.
Bottom line is that Microsoft has decided to get out of the stand-alone browser business and that Safari probably had little to do with it.
In fact I would not be surprised if Microsoft quietly let Apple know about this some time ago, which may be the reason for Safari. It seems to me that with all the browsers around, many of them free, the world did not need another browser on any platform. Browsers have never been a very profitable venture. The money has always been in the support and hosting services for the browser – on the server side of the business. It does not seem reasonable to me to think that Apple, as profit driven as it currently is, would invest in a product right now, that was incapable of producing income. The only logical explanation is that they knew about Microsoft’s plans in advance and needed a replacement that they could support. Additionally it was probably cheaper for them to roll their own than to buy someone elses. That way they could also control the code from the beginning as well as the updates. Additionally they don’t have to bother with old code for previous OS’s, or potential lawsuits from using someone elses work. Besides, it ensures compatibility for future OS’s as well as not having to bother with other platforms.
Finally, I would not be surprised if Apple approved Microsoft’s exit statement before it was released or even if they worked on it together.
Microsoft has always had a tendency to use IE in a monopolistic fashion. IE has also tended to be a portal for data directly to Microsoft. Although I understand that certain older Macs may still rely on IE for a browser, there must be better options.
Having used both Firefox and Opera on O/SX, I find IE to be a dinosaur browser. No more IE on my Mac; that sounds pretty good. If I had my way, they wouldn’t ship PCs with IE either.
Good Riddance