Appatic

It was back in 2009 with the release of IE8 that Microsoft first started to publicly declare the need for the world of letting go of IE6. From then to now things have only got more and more direct and since last week, the breaking point has finally been reached. Now Microsoft is not just saying it and supporting others declarations for the phase out of IE6. They have decided to put up a site for that goal, and that goal only.

TheIE6CountDown.com is a educational and promotional site that calls for the phase out of IE6 educating with the numbers of the current IE6 usage around the world and the basic info on why not use IE6. It is also a promotional vehicle for the close to be released IE9 in the case of Vista and 7 users or as a Microsoft sanctioned upgrade path to IE8 for those still using XP as their main Windows OS installation.

As of Feb 2011, approximately  12% of the connected world is still using IE6 as the main browser. The goal of Microsoft is to make that 12% a 1% as soon as possible. Something not as hard to do when it comes to common users, meaning those not accessing the internet from workstation.  From the detailed stats screenshot below combined with the profiled one above, It is clear that the average percentage of IE6 usage around the world if not counting China, South Korea and India (the top 3 countries using IE6) is already at 5-6%. So the goal of only a 1% of usage is reachable from that perspective, even if I see 3% on average as the most realistic figure for 2011. But counting everyone in, then I would put the reachable target for 2011 at 9% and maybe maybe 7% if things go extremely well.

With all this said,  it will be a good thing if you want to collaborate and check out on the site to know how you can accelerate the IE6 phase out. 

Linkage

TheIE6CountDown.com

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