I am sure that this news will be giving a bunch of browser competitors a climax to their eternal wet dream of Microsoft being brought to its knees but in the end I don’t think it will make a huge difference in what browsers end up being used in Europe. The news that Microsoft has capitulated to the demand by European Union regulators by offering up a ballot type dialog screen so they can select the browser they want installed is all over the web but I’ll bet it won’t do one bit of good for Opera.
While it may have been because of Opera’s whining and sniveling over their lack of market share; which they blame Microsoft for, that prompted this latest round of Microsoft wallet diving by the EU the fact that Microsoft gave in may be more economic than anything else. As Matt Rosoff an analyst with Directions on Microsoft in Kirkland, Washington, pointed out
“ Microsoft is basically capitulating,” said Matt Rosoff, an analyst at Kirkland, Washington-based Directions on Microsoft. “Microsoft was able to absorb fines and be more aggressive with their legal strategy when business was good, but when you’re looking at ongoing fines in a downturn, it makes more sense to settle.”
Source: Bloomberg :: Microsoft Offers to Add Rival Browsers to Settle Case (Update3)
Now in the Bloomberg post the lawyer for Opera; Thomas Vinje, had this to say about the move by Microsoft
…. called Microsoft’s offer a “dramatic reversal.” He said without a settlement Microsoft likely would have faced a large fine and still been forced to adopt the ballot screen.
Hmm.. let’s see, Opera’s current market share: 0.7 percent. I sincerely doubt that all this crap caused by them is going to do anything to bring them up to; or pass, the 1% share of the browser market. So ya I guess all this whining is really going to help Opera out of the basement.
Now Firefox as of May had 22.5 percent and even Safari was up there with 8.4 percent of the browser market. Both of those browsers along with Google’s Chrome have more than proven that Microsoft can be beaten when you actually have a product people want.
Opera on the other hand has done nothing more than wasted everyone’s time for what?
Nothing is what.
