Internet Explorer 9 is a complete departure from earlier versions of the Microsoft Internet Explorer web browser. It embraces the latest web technologies and treats web sites more like applications. It does all this using a clean, sleek interface. In the first 2 days since the beta was launched on the 15th, IE9 was downloaded over 2 million times worldwide.
This is more than double the number of downloads the Internet Explorer 8 Beta had when it launched in August 2008, receiving 1.3 million downloads over the first five days. Firefox 4 beta was only downloaded 100,000 times on its launch day.
Microsoft has worked hard to change its image and offer customers with a better more current experience. We’re used to Microsoft being pretty conservative with product launches. They don’t come often and they’re not usually that exciting. With the launch of Office 2010, Windows 7, and Windows Phone 7, they’ve done a great job of being innovative.
If two million downloads in two days sounds familiar, it should. It was just a few months ago that Microsoft announced they were selling 7 copies of Windows 7 every second. Microsoft customers are hungry for a new experience from Redmond and are chomping at the bit to get at these new products. Microsoft saw nine million visits and over 26 million page views to their Beauty of the Web site since its release last week. The site shows “how developers and designers are creating a more beautiful web using HTML5 and advancements in Internet Explorer 9.” Their developer-focused IE Test Drive Site also received four million page views since last Wednesday.
Microsoft is launching exciting products and people can’t wait to adopt them. This includes businesses, a market where the likes of Chrome and Firefox still have a hard time penetrating. 75% of companies were looking at Windows 7 for their business when it launched, so it follows that they may be just as interested in adopting the latest IE browser.
Important to note is that IE9 will absolutely not be available for XP, so the new browser will either push many customers and businesses to upgrade to Windows 7 (which they’ve already indicated they would like to do) or it will stunt the growth of IE9 once it launches.