When I first read about the EU’s plans to force Microsoft to ship Windows 7 without a browser I though it was a) idiotic and b) thirteen years too late to save Netscape. It seemed doubly odd in that these days everyone recognises there is actually no money in browsers and Netscape was built on sand. Proof positive that just because something is popular it doesn’t mean that it will make a lot of money. Hotmail, YouTube and ICQ are all examples of this.
That said, browsers remain an important strategic asset as they are the major means by which people access services on the Internet. Obviously this case was brought by Opera so they must have thought there was some benefit in doing it. Unfortunately for them I think the main beneficiary is likely to be Google. Inertia is powerful and when people see the ’select browser’ screen on W7 they are likely to go with what they know. In this case the two most well known brands online are ‘the blue e’ and Google.
So more and more people will become familiar with the Chrome brand which may boost Google’s netbook OS when it finally surfaces. However all the people being given the choice have, by definition, just bought a new PC so it remains to be seen what the long term effect will be. It’s a start though and it will be interesting to see where it goes.
I have the feeling, in any event, that the browser is going to become less important. At the moment it is the application of choice for doing all sorts of things from reading text to watching video but that does not mean that it is the best way to do so. Native applications on specialised devices are the future. An internet enabled set top box would need a peer to peer application for transferring content and a video player for showing it, but a browser?
I can’t believe an entire blog dedicated to browsers, and Firefox isn’t mentioned. Firefox has actually overtaken all other browsers in terms of popularity in mainstream usage. ALthough obviously Google Chrome is the best in performance tests. I blogged about it recently.