Then there's this article posted Friday on Network World, titled EC decision expected to force IE to better support standards. In it, Håkon Wium Lie, Opera's CTO, states
Second, due to the increased competition stemming from the ballot box, browsers will improve their support for standards. This will result in a richer, faster web. For example, I believe that Microsoft's IE will add support for SVG, a standard that all browsers but IE support.
Of course, it's in his best interest to see IE falling in line, but behind, his browser. He gets to be cutting edge, but part of a larger 'standards' crowd.
