Another Example of Hindering Innovation: The case of Internet Explorer 6

Kyle Morgan — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:41:55 +0000

Like many technology geeks, I was following the IE6 must die saga and found out about Google Chrome Frame project which offers an Internet Explorer plugin that supports HTML5. Being very interested by the phenomenon of hindering innovation, I was struck by Microsoft’s cynicism when it come to bring technological innovation to its users and customers. I mean this case shows how careless monopolies are when an innovator (Google in this case) has to do the monopoly’s (Microsoft) dirty job of upgrading its old technology.

Why is Google giving itself this headache of doing something that it shouldn’t be doing in the first place? Well, because IE6 users are working with technology from the bronze age that is not compatible with today’s standards and platforms. When Google brings innovative technology to the market (ex: Google Wave), it is confronted with the fact that more than 25% of all Internet users (i.e. that’s the percentage of people using IE6) will not be able to work with it. Since that is a big chunk, and that Microsoft shows no intention of upgrading IE6, Google has no choice but to do the work by itself.

All this has no effect other than having innovative products being adopted more slowly and productivity will suffer as a result.

Kyle Morgan's Daily Deceit » IE6

Another Example of Hindering Innovation: The case of Internet Explorer 6