Wow.

That means that IE on ARM has access to win32 APIs – even when it's running in Metro mode, but no other Metro browser has that same access. Without that access, no other browser has a prayer of being competitive with IE.

That's the first time I've seen anyone call using win32 APIs a competitive advantage.

Seriously, if Microsoft is "porting" IE by bloating WOA with ancient libraries, WOA and IE on it will be dogs.

The technical info I've seen implies that the third mode (so-called "Metro-style-enabled" mode) uses a form of thunking - loading generic code which will then calls platform-specific code based on what libraries are actually available -- meaning that a Metro-style-enabled app on WOA would only have access to Metro mode. This is contrary to what Mozilla is saying.

Has anyone actual evidence that IE on ARM will call win32 APIs in "Classic" mode?