The pioneering tech behemoth Microsoft is rolling out new plans that could ultimately shut off the very old, and once the dominant web browser, Internet Explorer, aka IE.
Yes, the emerging Microsoft 365 app suite would pull the plug on the very famous Internet Explorer 11 by Aug. 17, 2021, as officially announced by the company on Monday.
Well, as we all know, this is not a sudden move. Five years ago, when Microsoft rolled out the new Edge browser, it was understood by the entire digital community that the company had got its plan to rule out Internet Explorer as a whole from its palette. And now, the time has come, as a next step closer, the company unveiled Microsoft 365 app suite and deliberately announced that the company would end support for once-famous Internet Explorer.
In an official blog post, the company indicated that those who are working in Microsoft Team chat and collaboration would experience the detachment and will lose IE 11 support as early on Nov 30, 2020. Also, Microsoft revealed that by March 9, 2021, it would eventually stop supporting the Microsoft Edge Legacy desktop app. The tech giant has set a one-year time frame for 365 app suite to get rid of IE, completely.
Moreover, Microsoft ascertained the fact that retiring older versions of the software applications were just a part of the natural evolution process in the computer era. The company also affirmed that, after the aforementioned dates, Microsoft 365 and Teams users will possibly experience a sort of degraded background or would be blocked entirely to employ the browser to allow connection requests for Microsoft 365 apps suite services.
Microsoft straightly quoted that in those earlier days back in 2013, the users had been actively using IE 11. Back then, the online environment or the user interface was not sophisticated or elegant as like now. With the rising research on user experience (UX) and web technologies, the digital landscape has grown to be compelling and competitive. Microsoft IE continued to lose the market To Google Chrome. Between August 2013 and 2020, the market share of IE browser tanked from 21.2% to just 1.2%.
Hence, the company had to take up the tough decision to stay robust and appealing for the users in the digital platform. Ever since the era of open web standards, the company’s newer browsers like Microsoft Edge had enabled better, more disruptive online experiences for the users, the company added.
The company mentioned in an official statement that they have to “do more with less” on an unprecedented level in the new business environment
Microsoft launched Edge browser five years ago to give its users an all-new glimpse of the web environment when IE began to fade off from its lustrous fame. Since then Microsoft has been strenuously working hard on web technologies to compete with prominent mobile environments such as Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS and iPadOs. All these mobile platforms are dominant partakers in the mobile market and are continuously deploying substantial web technologies to improve their user interfaces and user experiences.
Back in 2018, speculation got the Edge browser back to limelight when Microsoft revealed that it planned to rebuild the Edge browser on Google’s Chromium open-source engine, which is known to be the heart of Google Chrome browser. The move was an advancement for web developers and Windows users that paved the way to reduce the complexities for developers and website to provide a similar experience to users across all web browsers.
However, despite all such efforts and initiatives Edge Browser is yet to claim a sizeable share of the web browser market worldwide. According to GraphFarm, Microsoft Edge accounts for just 2.19% of the market. Google Chrome, the dominant player rules the market with nearly two-third of the market share.
Can Microsoft Edge win back the lost glory of IE is something we all need to wait and watch!
