The Browser Wars: Mozilla vs Google, MS, Apple

By siliconindia   |   Tuesday, 28 July 2009, 15:42 IST   |    33 Comments
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The Browser Wars: Mozilla vs Google, MS, Apple
Bangalore: The rise of Mozilla Firefox in 2004 unleashed a new wave of competition among browser makers. Companies like Microsoft and Apple which for many years did not give much thought to browsers, are suddenly wide awake. So, can Mozilla face the browser onslaught from these companies? New York Times recently reported on the browser war between these giants and highlighted Mozilla's challenges in the report. Microsoft, with its Internet Explorer, and Apple, with the Safari browser, has narrowed the gap with recent upgrades. But it is Google Chrome which poses a bigger challenge. For several years, Google had been Mozilla's biggest ally and patron. But in September, it became Mozilla's competitor with the launch of its own Web browser, Chrome. As John Lilly, CEO of Mozilla said, "We have learned how to compete with Microsoft and Apple. Google is a giant, of course, and competing with them means we are competing with another giant, which is a little tiring." Despite Mozilla's increasingly competitive rivals, it has captured nearly a quarter of the browser market by focusing on speed, security and innovation. Today nearly 300 million people around the world use Firefox. In fact CNET News recently reported that one of the reasons behind Mozilla's success is that it is a non-profit structure and hence can lobby governments differently. Additionally, it can focus on delivering an unparalleled user experience and not on figuring out how to monetize the Web or hardware. "Mozilla is about a community coming together and saying it can compete with the largest software company in the world," says Sandeep Krishnamurthy, Director of the business administration program at the University of Washington at Bothell, who recently wrote a paper on Firefox's success. "There really is nothing like it." So far, Chrome has not had a huge affect on Firefox as it has grabbed just less than two percent of the browser market, according to Net Applications, a company that tracks browser use. During the same period, Firefox's share has kept growing, to 22.5 percent from 19.5 percent. Microsoft's has continued to decline, to 66 percent from 72, though it argues that most of that loss has been on computers that don't readily support Internet Explorer, like those from Apple. Although Lilly says that the renewed competition is a testament to the success of Firefox and of the Mozilla mission, he acknowledges that with the intense competition, it will be harder for Firefox to stand out. In the end, the question remains as to 'who will win the browser war?'