I spotted this commercial few weeks ago and have been seeing it again and again. This got me interested in where IE stands in today’s browser market. Now it’s important to understand that browser market shares are subject to change on a daily basis. However, from a big picture perspective, Chrome, Firefox and to some extent Safari are kicking IE’s ass.

Being a marketing nut, I’ll refer to something Peter Drucker once said:

“Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two–and only two–basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs. Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business.”

Innovation is the fodder that feeds the marketing beast. Businesses, to stay relevant, need to keep innovating. Apps need to keep coming out with updates, automobile companies need to come out with newer models, restaurants need to refresh their menus and artists need to create more stuff.

IE didn’t stop innovating. They just got complacent and lazy. By the time they realized the capabilities of Firefox and Chrome, it was too late.  The likes of Chrome and Firefox made users realize what was wrong with Microsoft’s browser. IE has received a lot of bad rep over the years and according to me has lost its marketability.

In the minds of an average Internet user the likes of Apple and Google have become ‘cooler’ brands than Microsoft; and fewer users are intentionally using IE. Today it comes bundled with your Windows operating system. It has transformed from being a consumer centric browser to a more business centric browser. More businesses have IE as their default extranet browser of choice. This is an interesting strategy, but I am no sure if it will make people use IE for stuff that doesn’t require it.

If only Facebook worked exclusively on IE.