Can IE 9 stem Microsoft's browser losses?

Microsoft is betting that the speedier Internet Explorer 9 will be enough to stem the steady erosion of IE's market share, claiming that it's now slightly faster than Firefox 3.6. At least one prominent analyst agrees. But is speed alone enough to make a difference?

Among IE 9's speed enhancements, Microsoft says, is the ability to process JavaScript in the background on its own separate processor core, using the graphics processor to accelerate the rendering of graphics and text, and hardware acceleration for playing HTML 5 video.

The company spells out all the benefits and lets you download the Internet Explorer Platform Preview from its Internet Explorer 9 Test Drive site.

Forrester analyst Sheri McLeish tells Computerworld that the new version of IE 9 shows that Microsoft wants "to be more than a follower or just on features parity."

She also points out that Microsoft has put together a new IE team, including, Ted Johnson, the co-founder of Visio Corp.

So far, Microsoft is playing up speed as IE 9's primary benefit, and adds that it adheres to HTML 5 standards as well.

It's not clear, though, whether that will be enough to stop what has seemed to be an inexorable decline in IE market share. Computerworld's Gregg Keizer notes that

IE has lost approximately 8 percentage points of share as measured by NetApplications.com in the last 12 months, and now accounts for about 62% of all browsers in use. Even the introduction of IE8 a year ago hasn't stemmed the losses.

I'm not convinced that speed alone will solve the problem. Firefox and Chrome, which have both been gaining market share at IE's expense, both having something that IE doesn't: A vibrant ecosystem of developers writing add-ins.

Unless Microsoft comes up with a way to spur a similar ecosystem, or adds at least one killer feature, it may be that IE will continue to lose market share.

IE 9, of course, is still only in preview, and in future versions may well have those features. As I write this, I'm putting the browser through its paces, and will soon have a Computerworld review with a more in-depth look.