Dive Brief:
- While ending support for older IE versions, Microsoft plans to release a final patch encouraging users to upgrade to IE 11 or Microsoft Edge.
- The company first announced the end of support for IE 8, 9, and 10 in August 2014.
- Despite the long lead-up, there are still an estimated several hundred million users of IE 8, 9 and 10.
Dive Insight:
On January 12, those using IE 8, 9 and 10 will no longer receive security updates or technical support, which may make them more vulnerable to hackers.
In March last year, the company relegated IE 8, 9 and 10 to "legacy" status, meaning those versions were kept active primarily for the sake of enterprise compatibility.
As of December 2015, IE accounted for more than 15% of console, tablet or desktop browsers in use, according to StatCounter Global Stats. By comparison, IE made up almost 23% of browsers used in North America.
