Netscape’s popularity peeked in 1996 when it held around 80% market share. But in August 1995 Microsoft released the first version of Internet Explorer based on an NCSA Mosaic license. A year later, in August 1996, with the release of Internet Explorer 3, a browser
war was on. By August 1999 Internet Explorer enjoyed 76% market share (Windrum, 2004).
During this browser war it seems that Internet Explorer did not have any technological
advantage over Netscape, and even might have been inferior. Therefore, other reasons
are needed to explain Internet Explorer’s success. One reason was that Netscape’s cross
platform development wasn’t economical: instead of focusing on one dominant platform
(Windows) it had approximately 20 platforms which caused a loss of focus. Meanwhile,
Microsoft focused on only one platform. Second, Microsoft bundled Internet Explorer
with Windows without a charge, and as Windows dominated the desktop operating
systems market Explorer was immediately available to the majority of users without any