After nearly 30 years of being on the market, Microsoft finally made the decision to retire Internet Explorer. The program was released back in 1995, and it rose to be the most used browser before Google Chrome swooped in. Yesterday, Microsoft officially pulled the plug on most user versions of Windows. Some versions are still going to receive updates for Internet Explorer until they reach the end of their life cycles.
A high percentage of Japanese businesses still use Internet Explorer
According to Nikkei Asia, there are many Japanese businesses that still use Internet Explorer. A report from Keyman’s Net gives us an idea of how many businesses we’re talking about. As per the report, about 49% of the respondents still use the browser. That’s a significant amount of businesses that will need to make the switch to another browser. Obviously, Microsoft recommends that they switch over to Edge, but it seems that a fair number of businesses are going over to Google Chrome. That’s to be expected, however. Another shocking discovery from the report is that about 20% of the respondents don’t know how to make the switch. That makes sense, as transferring everything from a browser (history, bookmarks, saved pages, cookies, settings, etc.) is tough. It gets more complicated when it’s an entire business making the switch. This will definitely make things complicated for these companies and others that still use Internet Explorer. There is, however, some good news. For starters, the transition to Microsoft Edge isn’t happening all at once. It’s taking place over the next couple of months, so these businesses have time. Also, Microsoft is showing popups to users who use Internet Explorer. These help the users with the transition process, so the business owners will have some guidance.