Microsoft retired its flagship web browser Internet Explorer on Wednesday, 27 years after the once-dominant software was launched, causing little commotion in the West but raising alarms in Japan.
Internet Explorer quickly took over as the hegemonic web browser after its launch in 1995, edging out early competitors like Netscape by being bundled with Microsoft Windows. Internet Explorer’s dominance of the web browser market peaked in 2003, when the browser enjoyed a 95 percent usage share worldwide.
