Microsoft's venerable web browser, Internet Explorer, has been derided in the web universe for so long that it makes sense for the competition to have snuck in and stolen away some of the software kingpin's marketshare.While Microsoft's IE web browser still has the largest marketshare of any web browser in the world, it has lost quite a few points in recent years to Mozilla's Firefox web browser, which many believe has much better security features, as well as an entire universe of developers that make "extensions" to the actual browser -- letting the customer customize their web experience as only they can.
And how about Opera, the stalwart Finnish company that many think is the best web browser on the planet? Opera used to charge for its web browser but then joined the competition (IE and Firefox) in giving it away for free.
Would Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) have been better served by acquiring Opera a few years ago? By doing so, it would have effectively taken a competitor out of the market, and also offered its millions of Windows users a much better web experience than what they already endure using IE. Sure, anti-competitive folks might have had a problem with Microsoft buying a web browser maker with a tiny marketshare percentage, but if serving customers the best possible product was the goal, perhaps Microsoft should have bought Opera.
[Disclosure: I own MSFT shares as of 12-21-06]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-22-2006 @ 6:21AM
Ivan said...
First, I don't think that anybody stoled something to MS here.
More to the point, don't you forget something along the way to your conclusion?
Making money is nice and making people happy with a better tool is also a good thing. But such a consideration makes money the only scale you think of here... Don't you think we would be missing something if what you suggest as a good move occurred?
And I am not talking of anti-competitive folks but rather about people like you and me having their environment shaped up by these so-called strategic considerations.
It looks like you can reduce the universe into a very small sphere with the kind of glasses you wear!
-ivan
12-28-2006 @ 8:11AM
Trausti Thor Johannsson said...
Opera is a Norwegian company, not finnish.
1-04-2007 @ 3:56AM
Emmet said...
I think that the Opera browser is exceptional. It took me a few days to get used to using it, but I can't live without it now. I've been using it for only 3 years, but in my experience it's just a superior product.
Now that Opera is coming out on a range of devies in 2007, I'd expect it to capture a large section of the browser market.
I don't know what the potential for investment in the Opera company is, but they certainly have a great product.