End of IE5 for Mac the Right Choice
Microsoft announced this week that IE5 for Mac will be the last release of Internet Explorer for the Apple platform. This is a smart move by Microsoft since Safari is gaining in usage as well as Camino (Chimera), developed by Mozilla. Microsoft is at the opposite end of the browser war on the Mac. Safari now comes preloaded with OSX much like Internet Explorer on Windows XP. Safari is built by Apple and it integrates into the system like Internet Explorer for XP but not to the same degree.
Mac aficionados in general don’t like Microsoft, so when they have the option of using an Apple product such as Safari, they will choose it over the Microsoft alternative, Internet Explorer. Microsoft knows this and is ending Internet Explorer development early before it invests manpower in a wasted cause.
Office is the one Microsoft product that will always be in demand by Mac users since it is the business standard. AppleWorks will never outshine Word because it is the 800 pound gorilla of word processing. However, Keynote is shaping up to be a viable PowerPoint killer.