IE 7: predictions

Friday, 18 Feb 2005

Everyone has been speculating what the recently announced release of Internet Explorer 7 will bring. Anne van Kesteren asked what people think will be in it. Herewith my predictions and the reasoning they’re based on.

The main issue to keep in mind is that Microsoft stand to lose a lot from losing their grip on the desktop monopoly. In that light, web apps are the devil. This has been pontificated on at length by people who know the company and the market much better than I. Hence, I believe Microsoft have little motivation to make web apps easier to develop but a lot of incentive to keep users clinging to a backwater browser as long as feasible.

With that in mind, I think it’s easy to predict what version 7 will bring:

Pessimistic? I certainly am. But you know what they say: a pessimist only has pleasant surprises.