Mozilla Expects IE10 Beta For Microsoft BUILD

Microsoft announced that it will reveal new features in its next-generation Internet Explorer at the upcoming Build conference.

Mozilla expects Microsoft to go a bit further and release the first Beta of IE10.

Microsoft appears to have transitioned from a 2-year to 1-year release cycle for its browser. If that is accurate, it is likely that we will see IE10 next week as IE9 Beta was released on September 15, 2010. Microsoft is keeping a lid on speculation and simply said in a comment posted on its IE developer blog that the "next set of announcements regarding IE10 functionality will be made September 13 at the //BUILD/ Windows conference."

Your guess is as good as mine which features that will be, but it is reasonable to assume that Microsoft will be introducing greater support for HTML5 technologies, further improvements to its hardware acceleration engine and we may see first demonstrations of HTML5 applications and services that are designed to run in IE10 as replacements for traditional local software. Also, expect a first peek at Microsoft's Windows 8 App Store layout and feature set.

Recent market share data published by Net Applications and StatCounter indicates that IE9 has not turned IE back into the wind and the browser is losing market share at the same pace as IE8 did before IE9's release. According to Net Applications, IE share was at 55.31 percent in August, down from 55.97 percent in July.