IE9 Beta Downloaded 2 Million Times in 2 Days

Despite the fact that Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) won't be available to Windows XP users, IE9 is off to a fast start. Released on the 15th of September, it's estimated that Internet Explorer 9 was downloaded two million times in just two days.

It's an incredible adoption rate for the Internet Explorer 9 beta, particularly considering the fact that Microsoft hasn't widely advertised the new browser. Users won't get access by simply waiting for an update, but must intentionally download the beta edition.

Internet Explorer 9 Receives over 9 Million Visitors

The IE9 beta site itself has received more than nine million visitors. By contrast, only 1.3 million users downloaded Internet Explorer 8 in its first two days of availability. (Source: afterdawn.com)

Microsoft is obviously encouraged by the popularity of the new beta edition, which may indicate that users are willing to return to Internet Explorer after the company saw its domination of the browser market whittled away by competition from Mozilla (Firefox), Google (Chrome) and others like Safari and Opera.

"All in all, we are encouraged about the very early response to the IE9 release this past week," noted Roger Capriotti, Microsoft's product manager. (Source: tgdaily.com)

Big Specs Bring Big Fuss

So, what's behind the sudden popularity of a browser whose specs are too advanced for Windows XP?

There may be a couple reasons. For one, customer satisfaction with Windows 7 has brought respect back to Microsoft products, which took a hit with the 2007 Vista debacle.

Second, any time a web browser is too demanding for an old operating system, users are going to wonder what the fuss is all about.

In the end, Microsoft hasn't got much choice in the matter. Sure, we can get upset that our old XP systems won't run the new, more secure version of Internet Explorer, but for a company that has seen its piece of the pie eaten up by competitors, it may be time for a miracle.