Why So Quiet About IE 8?
Mix '07, Microsoft's annual conference for web developers, is wrapping up this week in Las Vegas. The big news was Silverlight, Microsoft's new platform for rich web development. Development tools and platforms are what the Softies do best, and if you are a web developer Silverlight is important news. It promises to do for rich web development what Visual Studio did for Windows development.
Notably missing from the Mix hoopla was any detail about the next release of Internet Explorer. The Softies had promised that we would not have to wait another five years for an IE release, like we did with IE 7. They had said that they were looking at more like an 18 month release cycle. So many were expecting some pretty definite information about IE 8 at Mix. This was not forthcoming. Instead, there were murmurs about improved security, improved standards compliance and improved developer capabilities. If this sounds familiar, it is. This is the rubber stamp Internet Explorer release description, dusted off from the same kit used for the last few releases.
Why no details? Because the Softies have nothing to copy that will excite anyone. With IE 7, they had tabbed browsing to copy from Firefox and others. The Softies are just not good at inventing user interface improvements, though they are great at copying and improving on those of others. There is nothing new on the browser UI front to copy at the moment, thus there is no "wow" for the Softies to embrace and extend.
We'll have to wait for the other browser vendors to release UI improvements so Microsoft knows what to tell us will delight us about IE 8.
Copyright © 2007 Philip Bookman
Technorati: Business Strategy, Strategic Planning, Microsoft
Notably missing from the Mix hoopla was any detail about the next release of Internet Explorer. The Softies had promised that we would not have to wait another five years for an IE release, like we did with IE 7. They had said that they were looking at more like an 18 month release cycle. So many were expecting some pretty definite information about IE 8 at Mix. This was not forthcoming. Instead, there were murmurs about improved security, improved standards compliance and improved developer capabilities. If this sounds familiar, it is. This is the rubber stamp Internet Explorer release description, dusted off from the same kit used for the last few releases.
Why no details? Because the Softies have nothing to copy that will excite anyone. With IE 7, they had tabbed browsing to copy from Firefox and others. The Softies are just not good at inventing user interface improvements, though they are great at copying and improving on those of others. There is nothing new on the browser UI front to copy at the moment, thus there is no "wow" for the Softies to embrace and extend.
We'll have to wait for the other browser vendors to release UI improvements so Microsoft knows what to tell us will delight us about IE 8.
Copyright © 2007 Philip Bookman
Technorati: Business Strategy, Strategic Planning, Microsoft
Labels: Business Strategy, Microsoft, Strategic Planning
posted by Phil Bookman at 10:10 AM
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