Mary Jo Foley: Internet Explorer (IE) is important to Microsoft for a variety of reasons, some obvious and some less so.
IE is the most used piece of Windows, in terms of both time and frequency. It’s the bridge between Windows client and Windows Live. It is the gateway to the “Windows Web experience.” And it’s seen inside Microsoft as a vehicle for improving the “attach rate” for Microsoft online services.
It turns out that IE — specifically the IE 9 release — is also key to Microsoft’s tablet/slate strategy…
