Steve Jobs a browser duopolist?

Stan Beer
Tuesday, 19 June 2007 11:04

Opinion and Analysis

As an avid Firefox user for nearly three years, I can say it is the best web browser available, closely followed by the also very good Opera (although Opera fans will disagree). Comparing IE7 to FF is like comparing a lumbering ass to a race horse. As for Apple's Safari, well I never liked using it on the Mac and I certainly can't see any reason to use it on Windows.

Thus, it is with complete understanding that I both applaud and concur with Mozilla's chief operating officer John Lilly, who in his blog lashes out at Steve Jobs for revealing a vision in which both the world of computing and the Internet are dominated by a duopoly of one large proprietary juggernaut and one small one. In the Jobsian vision, there are just two browser companies controlled by the two largest operating systems companies.

While the Apple faithful sing his praises, Jobs' pie chart boldly envisions a world where Little Brother Apple has a quarter of the pie while Big Brother Microsoft has the rest. Such a duopoly comprised of two proprietary computing behemoths constitutes a very bleak vision indeed.

As Lilly puts it: "Imagine a world of…wait for it…access to the web controlled by 2 companies — and why not just go with the 2 dominant operating system vendors in the world."

The loyal Apple crowd hang on Jobs' every word and yell "awesome!". As Jobs reveals select tid bits of his proprietary vision, those of us emerging from the darkness of a monopoly and into the nascent light of the Internet can only shake our heads and wonder why anyone would willingly consign themselves to a duopoly controlled by computer companies.

The Internet is the world's best hope for liberating itself from the tyranny of computing platforms, whether they be proprietary or open source. Firefox, a far superior product to Internet Explorer, has made great inroads into Microsoft's browser market share. In the US, where Microsoft is especially strong, FF has about 15% of the market. However, there are places elsewhere in the world, such as Germany, where FF has almost reached parity in the market.

The beauty of FF is that it's universally available across the major computing platforms - Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. You don't have to rely on Apple or Microsoft's proprietary browsers for your web experience if you don't want to.

As Lilly points out in his blog, Apple is to be applauded for its efforts of bringing Safari to Windows. The more browser choice on the more platforms the better and healthier the market environment for the consumer. Hopefully, one day, Apple will also release Safari on Linux.

However, if Jobs' vision is really to win users away from Firefox rather than Internet Explorer then he'll probably be in for a shock. Jobs may discover to his horror that there's a whole segment of users in the marketpace who don't think he's cool.