Re: flash and IE

[David Neeley <dbneeley -at- oddpost -dot- com>]

No. I was referring to the fact that an increasing chorus of enterprise users (business and government) around the world are becoming fed up with the *many* security problems that continue to appear in Microsoft Windows and in its Web services products (IIS and IE). Secondly, more and more of the computer and technical press is coming to the view that people should consider other solutions for a variety of reasons. 
  
The erosion of market share has begun, but obviously it has a long way to go before it is more than a wavelet and longer before it becomes a tsunami--which, I believe, Microsoft can only stop if they uncharacteristically score a complete "home run" with Longhorn. 
  
Meanwhile, they are suffering the "death of a thousand cuts" as more customers become *former* customers. 
  
We should all remember that it is not you and me as private individuals who have and will continue to determine Microsoft's fate. It is the large customers in business and government--and that is a market that has begun to thaw in their attitude toward using other product. 
  
My reaction to software which *requires* a particular product such as IE is that an increasing market is shut out. Any enterprise contemplating moving to another solution than Microsoft means they are not interested in associated software, either. 
  
Further, throughout its history, companies which have relied upon Microsoft to provide a platform upon which they built exclusive products have come to understand that once a profitable market has been built, Microsoft itself will tend to enter and dominate it. Examples abound, from utilities (Quarterdeck's demise, Symantec's decline, etc. etc.) to applications (Great Plains being swallowed, others fighting for market share)...to Sybase (formerly a "development partner" while Microsoft learned about SQL databases, now a much smaller competitor), etc. 
  
I believe a very good business case can be made that a software company is best advised to develop Internet- or browser-based product which is cross platform in nature rather than being tied to the whim of Microsoft--or, indeed, to any other single vendor. 
  
As for an IE-specific product--I repeat that the security problems that go with IE are simply beyond what many security administrators will tolerate these days. 
  
Sometimes, you reach the point that in making product planning decisions you benefit greatly from understanding developing trends early in the process. Telling *any* markets they need not bother with your product is likewise often very foolish...when it is fairly simple to accommodate many different tools rather than relying upon one. 
  
David 
  
  
  
-----Original Message from "Goldstein, Dan" <DGoldstein -at- DeusTech -dot- com>----- 
  
David Neeley wrote: 
<snip> 
As Microsoft loses hegemony in the market to an increasing extent, IE will 
similarly become "just another browser." 
</snip> 
  
Has IE's percentage of the browser market been dropping recently? Or were 
you speaking in the Hopeful Future tense? 

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