It makes sense for Microsoft to continue to develop IE because they are capable of doing so and they also want to be a major player in the web applications mark

It makes sense for Microsoft to continue to develop IE because they are capable of doing so and they also want to be a major player in the web applications market. Having control of a platform is a huge advantage when developing software targeting that platform. There isn't a chance they're going to let go of IE. Don't underestimate Microsoft. They haven't let IE stagnate over the years out of incompetence. It was a conscious business decision to do so. Why should they devote resources keeping up to date when they can sit on their asses and still maintain a huge lead? They had almost no real competition for years. They were sure to lose some market share to Firefox anyway simply because there are people that will always choose to use open source software when it is available. The much larger market of average users is still very much loyal to Microsoft because Windows and IE is what comes preinstalled on their computers. It will be much longer before a real dent is made in that segment of the market. There is way too much room in the browser market for just one player so Microsoft was bound to eventually lose some market share when a competitor came along. There's still really no cause for concern on their part. I'm sure this is what they expected. Now they're going to pick up the pace again after having saved years of development expenses.