A Kinder, Gentler Microsoft - in the Browser Battle Trenches, is the Aggressor Playing Nice?

Implications: Microsoft is in the middle of a tremendous browser battle.  Their share has been eroding, and the web masses are getting restless.  Internet Explorer 8 is an attempt to fight back Firefox and Safari, but it also appears to be a change in approach for Microsoft.

Analysis:

The article discusses Microsoft's huge lead in the browser market, with almost a 75% market share as compared to Firefox's 17% and Apple Safari's 6%.  However, the posturing of these comments feels too easy on Microsoft.

Microsoft is definitely in a browser war, one that they have been faltering in.  They controlled 85% of the market as recently as 1/06.  Meanwhile, Firefox, at 9.5% in 1/06, and Safari, at 3% in 1/06, have both nearly doubled their lead since then.  On the mobile front, Microsoft Mobile has been crushed by Apple’s Safari, through iPhone usage.  To lose that high of a percentage in 2 years must be scary for Microsoft, as Google distributes Firefox, helping the browser gain critical mass at near 20% share, and as Safari threatens with the introduction of new Apple products.  That 10 point loss must equate to a significant loss in today’s and future dollars.

In this frame, everything Microsoft does is to stop the erosion of their market share (they lost 0.47% in January 2008 followed by 0.59% in February 2008), as opposed to their previous position as market aggressor.  The move to universalize standards in web design across theirs and other platforms is a clear sign that Microsoft wants to play nice, wants more acceptance by the market, instead of the powerful, dictate-the-terms stance that many feel they have taken.  The olive branch to Yahoo is brilliant Ray Ozzie’s way of playing nice, even as the rest of the company prepares to play more hostile.