Found this interesting story on the Microsoft Blog earlier this week.  Seems Sony has cut a deal with Google (the makers of the Chrome Browser) to have Chrome to be the default browser on new Sony Vaio PCs instead of the usual Internet Exploiter.

The deal is a big win for Google, which has struggled to give Chrome a significant share of the market. In August, Chrome captured nearly 3 percent of the market, versus Internet Explorer’s 67 percent and Firefox’s 23 percent, according to Net Applications.

The agreement is Google’s first with a computer manufacturer. Microsoft has similar deals with PC makers to make Internet Explorer their default browser, and IE comes with the Windows operating system in the United States.

Could Sony’s actions be any result of Microsoft removing IE From Europe Windows 7 Release? Doubtful, far as I know the US Edition of Windows 7 (slated for release on October 22nd) will include Internet Exploiter 8. May be Sony is being proactive in case in some very unlikely event Microsoft could be forced to ‘detach’ Internet Explorer from US Windows 7 releases. Or may be the folks at Sony just prefer Chrome over Internet Exploiter.

Microsoft’s IE8 advertisement official response…

“Competition in the marketplace is good, and people have the right to choose a browser that is best for them. People will choose Internet Explorer 8 for the way it puts the services they want right at their fingertips, protects them from social engineered malware and phishing threats more than any other browser, respects their personal choices about how they want to browse and, more than any other browsing technology, puts them in control of their personal data online.”

Now wait, didn’t Chrome get released well before IE8 and Chrome (as does Opera and Firefox) already had all these ‘features’ that Microsoft is bragging makes IE8 so great.