IE7 Update No Longer Critical

[blastfromthepast]

According to notes on the IE7 Blog, "Microsoft has taken IE7 off the updates site" because "Microsoft reclassified it as an optional update now" rather than a "critical update" as before.

http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/200...available.aspx

[IDNCowboy]

Originally Posted by blastfromthepast

According to notes on the IE7 Blog, "Microsoft has taken IE7 off the updates site" because "Microsoft reclassified it as an optional update now" rather than a "critical update" as before.

http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/200...available.aspx

Ding

[rhys]

Are we sure that the Japan rollout will have the optional status rather than critical? It may be different by market, though I don't know why it would.

At any rate, we all know where the hockey puck is going, it just means that its moving across the ice slower than expected. Thanks MS.

[burnsinternet]

IE7 is included with Vista, and that is the big rollout in Asia. I think we will be OK. This Christmas will be nice. XP & IE6 will be a thing of the past and Vista/IE7 will be on all new back to school computers and end of year presents. We have all been patient this long....

[Rubber Duck]

It may be that all English Version of XP that are on Service Pack 2 and have updates have already been offerred IE7.

I think it is unlikely that it will be a Critical Update in Far East due to the ill-explain delay, but it might have been offerred as a Non-Critical Update all this time.

It may also be that MS are ironing out some problems in the their bloatware.

[John W]

It may also be that MS are ironing out some problems in the their bloatware.

If you ask me, that's most likely the main issue. After waiting so long and with such anticipation, I personally have uninstalled and blocked reinstallation of IE7 on several computers since its release. It just seemed not-ready-for-prime-time.

That said, I really haven't done that recently. They must've released some reliability patches to the program because it definitely seems more stable lately than it was at first.

A lot of the computers I'm seeing seem to have it now and certainly as Vista is implemented that's only going to get bigger and bigger. Statistically, it can't be "most" yet but I would say IE7 is definitely starting to kind of take over. By the end of this year, I expect it'll be the main browser out there.

[rhys]

I have yet to see one IE7 browser enabled visitor from japan on google analytics

[domainguru]

Originally Posted by rhys

I have yet to see one IE7 browser enabled visitor from japan on google analytics

That's because GA is bugged. It doesn't show up IE7 browser hits properly. Strangely, it does show a few, but not many. Haven't figured out why yet ...

I asked Google in the google groups forum but they didn't even bother replying.

[rhys]

Originally Posted by domainguru

That's because GA is bugged. It doesn't show up IE7 browser hits properly. Strangely, it does show a few, but not many. Haven't figured out why yet ...

I asked Google in the google groups forum but they didn't even bother replying.

But I don't have this problem with my US based traffic. They register IE7. Frankly I doubt IE7 penetration in Japan even exceeds 1% right now.

[jacksonm]

Originally Posted by rhys

But I don't have this problem with my US based traffic. They register IE7. Frankly I doubt IE7 penetration in Japan even exceeds 1% right now.

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

They don't specify geographical distribution, though...

.

[domainguru]

Originally Posted by rhys

But I don't have this problem with my US based traffic. They register IE7. Frankly I doubt IE7 penetration in Japan even exceeds 1% right now.

Is that for ASCII domains? I think the bug is IDN-specific, something about punycode / unicode.

[rhys]

Originally Posted by jacksonm

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

They don't specify geographical distribution, though...

.

Yes - this definitely has nothing to do with Japan. I guarantee.

[domainguru]

Originally Posted by rhys

Yes - this definitely has nothing to do with Japan. I guarantee.

GA doesn't show Thai IE7 hits either. Definitely an IDN issue.

[jacksonm]

Originally Posted by rhys

Yes - this definitely has nothing to do with Japan. I guarantee.

Just curious, how can you guarantee?

.

[rhys]

There is no auto update offering of IE7 in Japan yet. That is supposed to be in May. The number of people who proactively actually go and download IE7 at the MS website will be tiny probably far less than 1%. And vista just began to sell in Japan end of Jan. Vista penetration will not be 15% even 10% of internet enabled Japanese PCs in a 2 month period. Thus the notion that IE7 penetration is 16% worldwide is only possible in a world where the US has 35% or more penetration with some support from Europe while most of Asia is near 0. Or else the 16% figure refers solely to US penetration which sounds too low to me given our auto-update campaign. It could be just the UK.

There is a recent online study by Tokai that polled Japanese users and 25% claimed to be using IE7. I laughed my ass off. Most of the respondents who claimed to be using it were in their 40s. I think the results of this poll are way beyond dubious. Those respondents are just reporting inaccurately because they just assume they have the most recent version of Internet Explorer and in truth they probably don't even have a clue how to even check which version of IE they actually have. They also simultaneously reported their usage of Vista at less than 1% (now that I believe).

[jacksonm]

This is not a guarantee, it is simply a chain of assumptions built one on top of the other. Who knows, though, it could be numerically close just by accident. I believe, without making any assumptions, that the percentage of IE7 is higher in Japan than you think it is.

I will now make the insinuation that the average over 40 japanese person is a lot more technically competent and computer literate than the average american in any age category. BTW, I am an american.

.

[rhys]

Originally Posted by jacksonm

This is not a guarantee, it is simply a chain of assumptions built one on top of the other. Who knows, though, it could be numerically close just by accident. I believe, without making any assumptions, that the percentage of IE7 is higher in Japan than you think it is.

I will now make the insinuation that the average over 40 japanese person is a lot more technically competent and computer literate than the average american in any age category. BTW, I am an american.

.

Actually it is a chain of facts and assumptions mixed together in a curious stew. And if I am close it probably isn't an accident. You should try not to be so literal Jacksonm. It may not always serve you well.

You get my point. And you could be right. But as I have indulged you and argued my case please indulge me and make your case as to how IE7 could have a 16% penetration rate. I'm curious.

I cannot really say whether or not an average 40 year old Japanese is more tech savvy than a comparable American peer. Judging between my own Japanese and American families I would guess that they are probably the same or worse. Make sure you don't fall prey to stereotypes there. We don't all wear glasses and our women are actually not all that demure. Just ask my wife.

[Fka200]

Originally Posted by John W

If you ask me, that's most likely the main issue. After waiting so long and with such anticipation, I personally have uninstalled and blocked reinstallation of IE7 on several computers since its release. It just seemed not-ready-for-prime-time.

That said, I really haven't done that recently. They must've released some reliability patches to the program because it definitely seems more stable lately than it was at first.

A lot of the computers I'm seeing seem to have it now and certainly as Vista is implemented that's only going to get bigger and bigger. Statistically, it can't be "most" yet but I would say IE7 is definitely starting to kind of take over. By the end of this year, I expect it'll be the main browser out there.

John, I agree with every main point that you made. I actually did the same and rolled back to IE6, and am going to be waiting until MS rolls out a different set of patches to put IE7 back on my hard-drive. But your prediction about IE7 being the main browser by the end of the year, IMO, is absolutely correct.

[jacksonm]

Originally Posted by rhys

But as I have indulged you and argued my case please indulge me and make your case as to how IE7 could have a 16% penetration rate. I'm curious.

Manual installations triggered by word of mouth, blogs, television news broadcasts, computer magazines, flashing neon signs, radio talk shows, etc, etc.

For example:

"IE7 is available now and you can type native characters in web addresses now!"


If people have been waiting for this for so long, why should one assume that they will wait for months for auto-update if they know manual installation is available? Of course business users don't have much choice, but home users can do what they want.

I'm not saying it is necessarily 16%, just that it's probably higher than you think. I will try to search for some japanese proxy server logs later and see if I can find some more concrete stats.

.

[rhys]

I've been checking my awstats logs from hostgator across a couple of thousand or so visitors in the past month. I'm looking at IE7 comprising about 4% of visits - I'm considering that these include myself, my partners, and some IDNers visiting it for their own purposes. I don't know if I can download raw data and do a pivot chart. But my estimate is that we are looking at a penetration rate in Japan of around 3% right now. None of my sites are very interesting to techies and there I imagine penetration should be higher so difficult to adjust for the bias.