That little comment from Ballmer has really been blown out of proportion. When I read it I thought to myself that Ballmer was just being polite to a developer who had just asked a ridiculous question. It's absurd to think that Microsoft is going to abandon one of the most widely used technologies on the planet after spending over a decade developing it.
The developer who asked the question was no doubt trying to push Ballmer's buttons. The easiest way out is to say exactly what Ballmer said. "Interesting. We'll look into it." It's a polite, noncommital response. What else is he going to do? Stomp on the guy for asking a stupid question? Try to justify using their own rendering engine? Acknowledge WebKit's superiority? It doesn't make any sense for him to say anything else because there's no question Microsoft is going to develop their own browser and rendering engine, and to get into a discussion of WebKit is taking the troll bait.
On an unrelated note, it's very disappointing to see that the Washington Post is now running lame TechCrunch articles. It's going to be much harder to filter them out now.
When IE has a 40% market share, will the question still be troll bait?
The only reason it makes sense for Microsoft to continue developing the IE rendering engine is because IE is still the most popular browser and they have some control over the market.
When the popularity drops, it will no longer make sense. I think it was a valid question, not "cheeky."
You say "When" as if it is a foregone conclusion. Firefox has been arguably better for several years, but its growth isn't that explosive anymore. The reality is that a lot of everyday people just don't KNOW or CARE that IE sucks. By being the default installation for all Windows users IE is guaranteed to continue its dominance. I would bet you won't see more than 30% Firefox in the near future. And Apple would have to really give Microsoft a punch in the face for Safari to get 30% of the browser market.
I know loads of people who aren't techies by any means but use or are considering using Firefox or Apple or Ubuntu. I can easily imagine Firefox getting 30% market share.
It makes sense for Microsoft to continue to develop IE because they are capable of doing so and they also want to be a major player in the web applications market. Having control of a platform is a huge advantage when developing software targeting that platform. There isn't a chance they're going to let go of IE.
Don't underestimate Microsoft. They haven't let IE stagnate over the years out of incompetence. It was a conscious business decision to do so.
Why should they devote resources keeping up to date when they can sit on their asses and still maintain a huge lead? They had almost no real competition for years. They were sure to lose some market share to Firefox anyway simply because there are people that will always choose to use open source software when it is available. The much larger market of average users is still very much loyal to Microsoft because Windows and IE is what comes preinstalled on their computers. It will be much longer before a real dent is made in that segment of the market.
There is way too much room in the browser market for just one player so Microsoft was bound to eventually lose some market share when a competitor came along. There's still really no cause for concern on their part. I'm sure this is what they expected. Now they're going to pick up the pace again after having saved years of development expenses.
The developer who asked the question was no doubt trying to push Ballmer's buttons. The easiest way out is to say exactly what Ballmer said. "Interesting. We'll look into it." It's a polite, noncommital response. What else is he going to do? Stomp on the guy for asking a stupid question? Try to justify using their own rendering engine? Acknowledge WebKit's superiority? It doesn't make any sense for him to say anything else because there's no question Microsoft is going to develop their own browser and rendering engine, and to get into a discussion of WebKit is taking the troll bait.
On an unrelated note, it's very disappointing to see that the Washington Post is now running lame TechCrunch articles. It's going to be much harder to filter them out now.