A big issue for a lot of us as we use modern internet browsers is continuity across platforms and devices. Historically, Microsoft has been rather late to the game. Google Chrome and even Firefox have had cross-platform browsers that worked very well across your various devices. Things that are important such as UI, cookies, favorites and other features just…WORK!
It’s a well-known fact that Microsoft tries to make Edge the default browser for all of their Windows-based devices. To entice you they make suggestions to switch over to Edge while browsing in Chrome, or having the default ‘click’ within a link try to take you to Edge to open a new page. Google, consistent with Microsoft’s messaging about partnering and openness, released their new Google Chrome browser ‘app’ in the Windows Store, with just a link to a download site. Microsoft, not happy with the lack of enthusiasm for Edge, pulled the ‘app’ and stated that it violated Microsoft Store policy. Hmmmmm…..
Last Fall, Microsoft officially released Edge for iOS and Android mobile operating systems…rather later as compared to the aforementioned browsers. ‘Continuity on PC’ is probably the most useful feature that is now available on all of your devices. More recently, the vendor announced several more improvements as part of its Windows 10 April Update. But while Edge has had a lot of promise, Microsoft continues to roll out these features in rather lengthy cycles, and that does little to help momentum.
Edge is an important lynchpin for Microsoft, one the vendor has let become a laggard over many years. If you can remember back to the 90’s when the browser war first began, Microsoft recognized the importance of browser dominance and ‘took over the market’ in a rather hyper-aggressive fashion, which has not been seen for some time. It will be interesting to see how Microsoft will try to improve its position in the current battle.
As the company continues to roll out improvements to Edge, one thing is clear – Microsoft isn’t giving up on this one. For enterprise customers, it’s worth knowing that Edge is an important component of Microsoft’s overall ecosystem and leveraging that understanding as vendor discussions allow.