No matter what one thinks of Safari for Windows (which has already been patched three days after launch and still can’t render A LOT of sites), it’s nice to see Apple attacking Microsoft’s browser hegemony on its own turf.
Right?
Unfortunately, not really. As John Lilly, COO of Mozilla, points out, when Steve showed off a pie chart depicting his vision of Apple’s Windows browser marketshare, he didn’t depict MS losing any share at all. Instead, the image just eats up all the alternatives, including the still-rising Firefox. And while I have my problems with Firefox (it strikes me as a program only a software engineer could love), I only want to see Apple bite into Internet Explorer’s customers, not the folks who have already sought out an alternative.
The computer world is not the American political scene, and there is room for way more than two players. And so it should be. The more browsers we have, the fewer “browser-specific” features develop and the more readily standards get adopted across platforms. We all stand to benefit from a diverse, competitive markets. A shame that Apple reveals they have no interest in the same.
John’s Blog » Blog Archive » A Picture’s Worth 100M Users???
Technorati Tags: firefox, safari
8 responses to “Mozilla COO Calls Jobs on Predatory Safari Plans”
“We all stand to benefit from a diverse, competitive markets. A shame that Apple reveals they have no interest in the same.”
And how do you know that Jobs’ pie chart doesn’t reflect actual research about how the market is likely to develop? Is it Apple’s job to be a cheerleader for Firefox?
Not explained in the announcement, but Apple has been targeting the IT Data Center market but unable to significantly break the MS strong hold. Too many businesses think they must use MS tools, MS servers and PC hardware because of the perception surrounding browser pie charts. Once browsers are standards compliant (as in everyone except IE) then apple can start selling hardware for the IT professionals. Giving away browsers is just a tool.
I wouldn’t read too much into it.
Speaking as a Mac user who lived through the mid- to late-1990s, when every complaint I had about a web site that wouldn’t render correctly on my Netscape browser was met with, “Buy a Windows machine and run Internet Explorer!”, I welcome Apple’s move. I’m still a Mac user, and while I use Safari most of the time, there are many things I like about Firefox, too; I definitely use both. If Apple wants to provide a browser for Windows users, I don’t think that it’s being done to cannibalize Mozilla’s share, despite Jobs’s slide.
When I heard the announcement, my thought was that if Firefox has 15% of the market and is continuing to grow, and if Apple could get up to 15-20% as well, then that’s a significant portion of people browsing the web who will demand compatibility and interoperability, and developers won’t be able to get by with proprietary MS code that doesn’t work with other browsers or OSes.