The expiration of that deal could mean the end of IE's preferred placement, even as Microsoft has repeatedly expressed its continued commitment to the Mac. The deal also made IE the default browser on all Macs. In August 1997, Apple and Microsoft cut a five-year agreement that included continued development of Office for the Mac. Particularly, Apple Computer's increasingly cozy relationship with AOL Time Warner could threaten IE's preferred placement on Macs. 'Without a doubt, there's more browser competition on the Mac than the PC,' Technology Business Research analyst Tim Deal said. Other Mac browsers include iCab 2.7, OmniWeb 4.06 and Opera 5.
The early June release of open-source browser Mozilla and the May beta of AOL Time Warner's Netscape 7 threaten IE's dominance on the Macintosh. The update comes as browser competition begins to heat up on the Mac. The new version is available only for Mac OS X, the major overhaul of the Mac operating system released in March 2001. New features include better handling of fonts through Mac OS X 10.1.5's Quartz graphics engine.
Version 5.2 of IE for the Mac is available for free from Microsoft's Mactopia Web site. Microsoft on Moday released an updated version of its Internet Explorer Web browser software for the Macintosh.
