Gates: IE at core of Microsoft next-generation Web plan

IDG News Service - LAS VEGAS -- The browser isn't everything when it comes to Microsoft Corp.'s platform strategy for next-generation Web applications, but it remains key, Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates made clear today at the Mix '06 trade show.

Gates acknowledged that Microsoft made a mistake in waiting to build new innovations into its Internet Explorer browser technology.

"In a sense, we're doing a 'mea culpa' in saying we've waited too long for a new browser release," Gates said during his talk to kick off Microsoft's first show for designers and developers of high-impact Web sites. "We are very immersed in the browser as a platform."

Microsoft's lackluster attention to the browser allowed competitors such Mozilla Corp. with Firefox and Opera Software ASA to challenge IE's dominance in the browser space.

Now Microsoft is answering that challenge, Gates said. The company is building innovations into IE to improve the experience of users, as well as in security and next-generation technologies such as RSS (Real Simple Syndication), he said.

Microsoft already is looking ahead to the next two releases of of the Web browser and expects the next version, IE 7, to be broadly adopted once it is released later this year.

IE 7 will be included in the Windows Vista operating system, which will ship later this year. Microsoft will also offer a version for Windows XP at the same time.

As expected, Gates also announced a new test version of IE 7 at the trade show.

Attendees, most of whom were Web designers and developers, said Microsoft is making a big effort to woo creative Web-design firms in order to establish credibility among this sector, which traditionally has favored a combination of Adobe Systems Inc. and Macromedia Inc. software and Apple Computer Inc. hardware to build Web sites and applications.

One Web designer from Washington, who asked not to be identified, said Microsoft is courting his company and even paid the way for him and his colleagues to attend the show. Microsoft also is dangling big-name customers in front of the Web design shop as an attempt to lure them to use its tools and platforms, including the forthcoming Microsoft Expression set of design tools that competes with Adobe's software.

Mix '06 attendee Lynn Langit, founder and lead architect at WebFluent, said Microsoft is partly using its renewed focus on IE to "establish its dominance on the Web."

Langit said she was particularly impressed with the IE 7 compatibility lab at Mix '06, where developers can test their Web sites to see how they will perform in IE 7.

The browser wasn't the only focus of Gates' talk. He spoke of going "beyond the browser" with tools for providing Web-connected applications on various devices, such as the new Windows-based ultramobile PCs. Microsoft and partners unveiled the devices, code-named Origami, at CeBIT earlier this month (see "Intel, Microsoft unfold Origami ultramobile PC")

"We can't be device-centric -- we have to be user-centric," he said. To do this, Gates said, Microsoft is poised to offer an easy-to-use platform with tools and within Vista for developers to build next-generation Web applications.