REDMOND, Wash., April 17, 1997 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that end user demand for the award-winning Microsoft® Internet Explorer 3.0 browser continues to grow dramatically, reaching major usage milestones. New figures from two industry research groups show that over 15 million customers actively use the Internet and intranets via Microsoft Internet Explorer. These studies from Market Decisions Corp. and MSI Corp. confirm that use of Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 continues to grow among corporations, consumers and Web professionals. In addition, international surveys and Web site hit data show that for the first time, Microsoft Internet Explorer is now being used by a majority of visitors to several of the world’s most popular Web sites.
Corporate Customers Rapidly Deploying Microsoft Internet Explorer
The acceptance and deployment of Microsoft Internet Explorer among corporate IT managers has grown dramatically over the last several quarters. Best-of-breed versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 are now available for the Windows® 3.1, Macintosh, Windows 95 and Windows NT® operating systems, and the free (except for shipping and handling) Microsoft Internet Explorer Administration Kit, offering easy management, configuration and distribution of Microsoft Internet Explorer across the enterprise, is also available cross-platform. As a result, more than 350 major corporations, representing over 6 million potential desktops, have standardized on Microsoft Internet Explorer as their intranet client solution in the past eight months. Many companies cited Microsoft Internet Explorer support for the latest Internet technologies, including Java
™
and ActiveX
™
, seamless integration with existing systems, and overall ease of use – resulting in increased productivity and IS savings – as reasons for choosing the browser. Companies that have selected Microsoft Internet Explorer as their standard include Arthur Andersen L.L.P., Baltimore Gas and Electric Co., Burger King Corp., Catholic Healthcare West, Compaq Computer Corp., Continental Airlines Inc., Coopers & Lybrand L.L.P., Crestar Financial Corp., Dayton Hudson Corp., FINA Oil and Chemical Co., Intergraph Corp., Reynolds Metals, Sprint PCS, Wang Laboratories Inc. and Wheat First Financial Services.
Growth of Microsoft Internet Explorer on Windows 95, Windows NT 4.0 Particularly Strong
Although Microsoft Internet Explorer is also available in best-of-breed implementations for users of Macintosh and Windows 3.1, it is increasingly the browser of choice on Windows 95 due to its superior integration with 32-bit Windows operating systems. Sites that take advantage of the latest in Internet technologies – such as ActiveX and Java – show significant increases in usage of Microsoft Internet Explorer. One of the sites that takes advantage of ActiveX technology, Microsoft Investor (http://investor.MSN.com/ ) , receives more than 1 million hits per day from over 100,000 visitors. Of these, over 87 percent use Microsoft Internet Explorer, up from 53 percent in October 1996.
In addition, over 50 percent of the visitors to Windows95.com (http://www.windows95.com/ ) , the most popular independent site devoted to Windows 95 on the Internet, use Microsoft Internet Explorer. Windows95.com receives approximately 8 million hits by over 250,000 unique visitors every day.
“The Windows95.com Web site has seen a consistent rise in Microsoft Internet Explorer usage since August 1996,” said Steve Jenkins, webmaster of Windows95.com. “Our users have simply come to realize that surfing our site with Microsoft Internet Explorer makes their experience faster, easier and much more exciting. And when visitors can’t decide which browser to use and they ask my opinion, I tell them they’re missing out if they use anything but Microsoft Internet Explorer. We’ve even started packaging Microsoft Internet Explorer with our 32-bit Shareware CD-ROM Collection because of its speed and reliability.”
Microsoft Internet Explorer Hits on Select International Sites Top 50 Percent for First Time
Customer demand and use of Internet Explorer has traditionally been strong overseas where it offers superior functionality and language offerings. Microsoft delivers leading support for international customers, shipping 30 localized language versions (including English) of Microsoft Internet Explorer – more than any other Web browser. The Platform Preview release of the next major version of Microsoft Internet Explorer – version 4.0 – is already available in 12 languages, making the latest in Internet technology available to users and developers worldwide.
With the broad worldwide availability of Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0, its use has exceeded 50 percent on several popular international Web sites. Sites where the majority of visitors have selected Microsoft Internet Explorer include:
-
Entertainment Online , (http://www.e-on.com/) where Microsoft Internet Explorer makes up 67 percent of hits;
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Turkey’s Magnet ISP
(http://www.mag.net.tr/anket/1/program.html) at 73 percent; -
Lander , one of Spain’s largest ISPs (http://www.lander.es/) at 51.6 percent;
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Portugal’s Top Five Cyber-Metereologia survey
(http://www.ip.pt/top5portugal/cyberm/) at 53.8 percent; -
and Demon Internet , (http://www.demon.net/) Europe’s largest ISP, at 49.9 percent.
-
In addition, a survey by Nikkei NetNavi (http://www.nikkeibp.co.jp/) shows that 53.8 percent of visitors use Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0.
“As the largest ISP in Europe, Demon Internet knows that the client software used by subscribers is an integral part of their Internet experience,” said Sylvia Spruck Wrigley, Web design manager for Demon Internet. “Demon Internet made the decision to distribute Microsoft Internet Explorer because we believed it was set to become a leader. The fact that the majority of Demon Internet subscribers are now using Microsoft Internet Explorer shows that this was the right decision.”
Developer Use Continues to Gain Momentum
Developers are moving rapidly to adopt Microsoft Internet Explorer for their Internet and intranet development, assuring its continued growth. With Microsoft Internet Explorer’s support for the broadest range of Internet technologies, developers have the most flexible way to deliver compelling content to their users. More than 250,000 developers and corporate evaluators have downloaded the Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 Platform Preview since its release on April 8. Separately, Microsoft has also delivered the Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 Platform Preview and Software Development Kit to the more than 500,000 members of the Microsoft Site Builder Network.
Microsoft Internet Information Server Momentum Also Reaches Milestones
In just over one year on the market, Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) has become the No. 1 commercial Web server on sites on the Internet as well as on corporate intranets. The April 1997 Netcraft Web Server Survey (http://www.netcraft.com/survey/) shows that IIS is used to host over 153,000 sites. This compares to only 121,000 sites hosted on all versions of Netscape Web servers combined. Only 28,418 sites are running Netscape Enterprise Server. A February study by Telecommunication Research Group (TRG) shows that IIS is the Web server of choice for intranets, with 33 percent of the installed base, as compared to 24 percent for Netscape Web servers and 10 percent for Lotus Domino. Customers deploying IIS as their intranet standard include The Boeing Company, Coopers & Lybrand L.L.P., DynCorp, General Motors Corp., Lucent Technologies Inc., Pennzoil Co., Ralston Purina and the Southern Company. Large sites running Internet Information Server on the Internet include Dell Computer Corp., Gateway 2000 Inc., Hallmark Licensing Inc., NBA.COM, NFL.COM, NASDAQ and RCA Electronics.
For more information on companies that have selected Microsoft Internet Explorer, visit the Microsoft Internet Explorer Business Solutions Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/ie/ .
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.
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