IE used in 10,000 firms

Microsoft (MSFT) said today that more than 10,000 corporations have licensed the Internet Explorer administration kit, the latest figure used to measure demand for IE 4.0 against rival Netscape's browser.

It said that companies such as ACE Hardware, Bechtel Corporation, Deloitte & Touche, Merrill Lynch, Nabisco, and Matsushita Electric are choosing IE 4.0 for their corporate Internet and intranets. It said the total represents a potential 8 million deployments of IE.

"Microsoft Internet Explorer leads in the consumer space, and we are now seeing a significant increase in the corporate space as well," said Yusuf Mehdi, director of marketing for Internet Explorer, in a statement.

Netscape remains the dominant browser company, however. Two weeks ago, Netscape released figures compiled from search engine use showing it held a 67 percent share of the market. The numbers came from the Excite, Infoseek, LookSmart, and Yahoo sites. The company also said that its client products have an installed base of more than 68 million users, including 25 million using the new Communicator.

Microsoft is sticking by an earlier report by Dataquest that shows its browser market share at 39 percent, compared to 57 percent for Navigator. Netscape questioned the methodology used to formulate those figures. Browser market share varies by market segments.

Microsoft also announced today that business, postal, and communications services company Mail Boxes Etc. has selected Internet Explorer 4.0 as its browser software of choice for Internet access. MBE said it chose Internet Explorer because of its features, such as customization and personalization.