Microsoft Says IE9 Beta Demand Overwhelming 203
cgriffin21 writes "Microsoft expected Internet Explorer 9 to be popular, but after more than two million people downloaded the IE9 beta in the first two days after its release, the software giant is having a hard time choosing which eye-popping statistics to cite. Microsoft says its "Beauty of the Web" site, which illustrates the aesthetic advantages of IE9's support for HTML5 and hardware acceleration, has had more the 9 million visits and 26 million page views since the IE9 beta launch on Sept. 15. Microsoft's developer-oriented IE Test Drive Site has had 4 million page views during the same period."
Good to see (Score:2, Insightful)
I for one am happy to see IE becoming competitve again. It is good to have more than one viable alternative out there.
Re:Early start (Score:2, Insightful)
keeping up with the jones' (Score:5, Insightful)
Say what you want about IE's history (and lets face it, the jokes that come to mind are bountiful), but with Firefox and chrome pushing them that Microsoft has again started pushing IE development. Im not happy about that because I want IE to dominate, but because it keeps ALL the vendors honest.
Say it with me, competition is GOOD.
Probably Web Developers and Publishers (Score:1, Insightful)
A lot of people have websites. They want to see how their website is looking in the next version of a major browser. Some dudes like epSos.de do not care at all, but others who live from their websites want to know the future of their business.
Re:I can only assume (Score:2, Insightful)
People are desperate for a fix! (Score:4, Insightful)
Browsers do not excite people. Getting their problems resolved does. Microsoft's "overwhelming" response is a strong indicator that people are displeased with what they have now and are looking for it to be fixed.
This is nothing new. Nearly every upgrade from the previous version of Windows was enthusiastically received by users who were hopeful that the problems of their previous version are resolved in the new one. People were happy with Windows98 and so WindowsME did not receive any welcome from users. (If they called in Windows98enhanced it might have gained popularity though) And the same happened when trying to get people to go from WindowsXP to Vista... people were happy with XP (and still are!) and see no compelling reasons to move to another OS. (The use of 64 bit will be the draw that will finally move people to Windows 7 though)
If there is a reason people WANT MSIE9, it is because the previous versions are not good enough.
Re:I.E. lock? (Score:5, Insightful)
RE: 3.) The kind of people who think that would probably not be trying out a beta. I might be wrong though
5.) If you filter out the people who CAN'T run IE9 - XP users circa 60%, Linux and Mac users... it works out to be a bit bigger.
I think the biggest share is the people who are curious to see what Microsoft pulled out this time. Their form at late with software is getting much better. Windows 7 was great, Office 2010 was great as well... Microsoft are finally waking up in face of some competition.
Re:Good to see (Score:2, Insightful)
Wait...so you're saying that, in light of the other things you listed, Microsoft focusing on making things run smoother and work better with web standards is a bad thing?
Re:Fraudulous advertisement (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Not suprising (Score:1, Insightful)
Probably mostly designers and Javascript coders who wanted to see in advance which non-standard adjustments they would have to make this time so stuff that works in every other major browser isn't screwed up by IE again.
Re:Good to see (Score:3, Insightful)
well, given past performance, it is quite reasonable to assume that somehow IE-9 will be borked up in some way, some odd rendering bug or something.. in that light, MS introducing IE 9 means all those poor web-devs will now have to support 'standard rendering' + IE 6-7-8-9 instead of just 'standard rendering' + IE 6-7-8.
i would prefer it if IE6 would be killed off once and for all though.. fucker needs to DIE
(and no, i dont think MS releasing IE9 is negative, i wont be using it, but i dont mind)
Re:Good to see (Score:3, Insightful)
which used to be 95% just a few years back...
if losing half the markt in ~5 years isnt getten your lunch eaten, then i dont know what is
Re:Good to see (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What about the rest of us? (Score:3, Insightful)
Why on earth should he have to buy an entire OS - discounted or not - just to test a browser?
Re:I can only assume (Score:1, Insightful)
If those are your primary concerns, then it's unlikely any OS upgrade is going to offer you any value.
Re:I can only assume (Score:2, Insightful)
However first essential thing in a successful marketing is having a good product which offers something new and competitive. And both Win7 and IE9 offer that.
Re:Geez (Score:1, Insightful)
This isn't Youtube, FFS.
If you mean "you", then fucking write "you" - not "u".
Re:Not suprising (Score:3, Insightful)
It's still in beta.
They shouldn't be working around issues, they should be reporting any issues and demanding that MS fix them prior to official release.
Re:What's the deal about IE9 (Score:1, Insightful)
Because it uses less hardware time combined across the components than it used to use on strictly CPU time?