Today Microsoft released Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7, an improved version of the old Internet browser that the largest software producer in the world hopes to use as a vehicle to win back users who have migrated to Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, and therefore repositioning itself as a major player in this niche market .
The browser has been available since October for Windows 8, the new operating system compatible with devices that have a touch screen, but as of today Internet Explorer 10 is also available for the 700 million Windows 7 users, writes Reuters.
The new version of Internet Explorer is 20% faster at loading web pages than Internet Explorer 9 and allows for the use of touch screen devices, Microsoft said.
Earlier versions of Internet Explorer still dominate among the browsers for desktop computers with a 55% market share of PC browsers, but in recent years IE has lost ground to Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome, which have 20%, respectively 17% of market share, according to research firm NetMarketShare.
On a market still small, but growing for Internet browsers for mobile devices, Apple’s Safari browser is the leader with 61% market share, owing its popularity to browsing from iPhone and iPad devices, while the default Android browser follows with 26% market share. Third on mobile devices is Opera with 7% market share. Google’s Chrome browser for iOS is only used on 0.01% of iPhones and iPads. Mobile browsing from smartphones and tablets is around 10% of the whole browsing market, while the vast majority of users are still browsing from desktop and laptop computers.
Tablets using Windows 8 have not recorded significant sales in October, when they were launched, which has limited the popularity of Internet Explorer 10 so far. As of January 2013, only 2.3% of computer users have Windows 8 OS installed, according to NetMarketShare.
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