[TheEngineer]

IE has now reached 96 percent market share, according to StatMarket, up from 87 percent a year ago.

Why is MS excited about a 96% market share for a free product? The higher the market share, the higher the support/maintenance costs for MS... with no associated revenue. It ain't like people are going to stop using WindowsXP because it doesn't have an integrated web browser.

I guess I don't see how IE helps MS. Just the bandwidth costs alone (for providing free downloads and updates) would choke any company south of an IBM or General Motors.

[tubebender]

"
Why is MS excited about a 96% market share for a free product? The higher the market share, the higher the support/maintenance costs for MS... with no associated revenue. It ain't like people are going to stop using WindowsXP because it doesn't have an integrated web browser. "

Shouldn't the question be...How much will MS charge for IE and how soon ?