Microsoft’s plans to release its new Internet Explorer 8 by the end of the year seem to have been miscalculated. According to a blog post made by Mr. Dean Hachamovitch, Internet Explorer general manager at Microsoft, the company plans to offer a new public beta version during the first quarter of 2009, which will be followed by the final release.

The new browser software was introduced at the vendors’ Mix conference this March and very soon after, Microsoft came out with the first beta version. The second beta appeared in August, as scheduled, and the final version was supposed to be finished by the end of this year.

There are no details about the issues that led to this delay, as Mr. Hachamovitch only explained that the company is providing its testers and developers with all the time needed to make sure that the software is completely verified and that their feedback is incorporated into the final version. Microsoft "received a lot of feedback about how we transitioned from the IE7 beta releases to the IE7 final release, and as a result we want to be clear about the plan for IE8," he said.

The company’s executive manager addressed the entire community and asked users to download the second beta and report any sort of flaws or other observations. "We want the technical community of people and organizations interested in Web browsers to take this update as a strong signal that IE8 is effectively complete and done," he wrote. "They should expect the final product to behave as this update does."