updated 05:45 pm EDT,
Thursday July 1, 2010
Korea no longer requires ActiveX for online sales
Rivals to Microsoft were given a significant victory on Thursday with a ruling in South Korea that opens up financial transactions to browsers besides Internet Explorer. The country's Financial Services Commission has scrapped a 1999 rule that required using ActiveX to verify shoppers' IDs, effectively giving Microsoft a government-backed monopoly over business. The change came after the Korea Communications Commission decided in May that the rule prevented most smartphones owners from buying things online.
The legal change takes effect immediately, but a committee to oversee the transition won't arrive until later this month.
Opening the browser rules is poised to quickly erode some of Microsoft's market share in Korea, as locals will no longer be required to use Internet Explorer, and therefore a version of Windows, to shop online. The browser has lost much of its share in the US and much of Europe, where Chrome, Firefox and Safari now have significant share. Windows Mobile has some level of support for ActiveX, but unlike its desktop counterpart has much less share and has been losing ground to the iPhone, and Android, in Korea.
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Finally the Korean government is waking up. Active X, Microsoft's outdated and prone to security attack Active X website creation tool, has long been discarded to the proverbial technological garbage can by American web developers but in much of Asia it is inexplicably, still in common usage. In South Korea, for example, most websites require Internet Explorer to conduct business and other transactions because this non "web standards" technology is not supported by any other major web browser. Korea is not alone in still using Active X technology. Chinese language websites, like many in South Korea, use this technology even to view "Adobe Flash" movies. My wife, a Malaysian Chinese American immigrant, has to use Internt Explorer to view her beloved Chinese language movies and soap operas. We in America often see countries like Korea as having lots of advanced computer technology. This is in large part true. I lived in South korea for more than two years. I miss the high speed internet connections there where both download and uploads speeds dwarf average DSL speeds in the United States but when it comes to website development South korea lags far behind the U.S.
As a result of this website development lag, Apple Mac computers, which most professionals consider superior to their Windows operation system rivals, have been unable to make a significant penetration into the Korean market. This is due to the fact that Microsoft's Internet Explorer does not support the Mac operating system. It seems that the over controlling Korean government is belatedly moving forward. Better late than never.
John H. Armwood
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