Microsoft is pulling further support for its much-reviled internet browser, indicating a likely move to give up on it entirely. The U.S. tech giant announced this week that a number of its apps will no longer be supported on its Internet Explorer browser by the end of the year.
The Redmond, Washington-based company announced earlier this week that its workplace chat software Teams will no longer be supported on the browser starting on November 30. Microsoft added that the browser will also no longer support its other 365 apps, including its Office products, starting in August 2021.
By pulling out some of its widely used apps from its Internet Explorer browser, Microsoft is likely signaling the possible end of one of its most hated software products. However, Microsoft did clarify that Internet Explorer will still be with us for at least the next couple of years.
After 25 years of existence, Internet Explorer still remains installed in millions of personal computers worldwide, although its popularity has significantly dwindled since it was introduced as part of Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system in 1995. Internet Explorer managed to kill off its closest rival during that time, Netscape Navigator, dominating the browser market for the next few years.
Unfortunately, Microsoft had rested on its laurels and has failed to improve the browser over recent years. The Internet Explorer 6 iteration, for example, was known for its software bugs, outdated technology and security problems, and those issues led to some competitors stealing away the browser's thunder.
By 2010, Internet Explorer's market share had fallen to below 50 percent. As of last year, the browser only occupied around 4 percent of the market. Dominating the segment is Google's Chrome browser, with a 71 percent market share.
Due to the fact that Internet Explorer is pre-installed on almost all modern Windows operating systems, Microsoft stated that it will still continue to support the browser. Microsoft has been trying to kill off the browser, albeit unsuccessfully, over the past five years. It had at one point released a new version, called Microsoft Edge, in an attempt to transition users to a new platform.
If Microsoft decides to completely pull support for the browsers, millions of corporate apps would be rendered useless. Unlike individual users, corporations tend to be very slow to adapt to new browser versions. Microsoft noted in its statement that Internet Explorer won't be going away anytime soon as millions of legacy IE11 apps and systems are still relying on its existence to function.
