This is Microsoft's new browser. If you use Firefox you may notice some similarities like tabbed browsing and the search function in the upper right hand corner that allows surfers to search with various engines right from the browser's tool bar.
Most of the functionality appears to be copied from Firefox right down to control+T to open a new tab. Microsoft wasn't even the second to market with this. AOL has a tabbed browser that comes with my AOL IM (BTW if anyone knows how to disable that browser with out affecting IM please let me know).
Perhaps there is yet another browser with the tab feature.
Are there other things that Microsoft is not first to market with? Probably. This anecdote makes it reasonable to question the company's ability to innovate. This is one of many reasons why I don't have any interest in owning the stock beyond its weight in any tech ETF.
13 comments:
There definitely is another browser with tabbed browsing : Safari on Mac.
Opera on Mac and PC is the best tabbed browser, the feature is more intutitve than on safari or firefox. Plus, Opera has very strong password memorization features and starts where you left off everytime you return to it after a close.
K-meleon is another good tabbed browser. Like Firefox, it is open source freeware based, on the Mozilla suite. A geekier interface, but (like Opera) smaller, lighter and faster than Firefox, and definitely worth a try.
Not only has MSFT lost the ability to innovate, they seem quite slow to catch on to and copy new developments.
If my memory serves me right, I can't think of any MS innovation since Windows/Office. Netscape crushed them in the browser market initially and if not for there dominance in the OS market at that time (and some illegal behavior) they would probably already be a 2nd tier player now instead of only headed in that direction as they are now. It's been all down-hill since Netscape almost ate their lunch.
Mircosoft has never invented anything, but the list of them crushing first movers is as longer as the technology industry itself.
Microsoft waits until a technology market appears large enough to make some serious coin and takes it over crushing all thier competition, same business model over and over.
The previous post of Netscape "crushing" Microsoft makes me laugh, they had over %80 market share and then got absolutly CRUSHED by Microsoft.
AOL owned the online portal market now MSN & related sites dominiate content, although this is NOT Microsoft's stongest takeover.
Wordperfect invented and then had over %80 market share in word processing market and then got CRUSHED.
Lotus invented and had over %80 marketshare in shread sheets and got CRUSHED.
Oracle (and sybase before them) owned %90+ of the relational database market and got semi-crushed by Microsoft down to about 40% vs 60% for SQL Server.
Novell had 90% market share in PC Networking and then got CRUSHED.
IBM had ALL the PC Operating System market and then got CRUSHED by young Bill Gates.
Google has most of the Search Ad market share and Microsoft is now getting very interested...Google should be scare to death otherwise they have already lost!
I know where my money is!
Only thing may be if Bill Gates focus is too much on philanthropy and less on CRUSHING everyone and everything that gets in his way.
Makes me laugh how people to this day think Bill Gates is a computer geek, his real skill is at being the most all out take no prisioners capitalist in the last 50 years.
You do not become the richest man on the planet by "innovating"
Just to be complete I forgot the ultimate Bill Gates CRUSH of Apple Computer which invented and owned the graphic user interface market until a minor product called WINDOWS - laughed at for the first 2 years as it was a poor man's copy of Apple and other graphical interfaces of the day.
Apple seems to have chance at a small comeback due to the consumer shift to multi-media and connectiving programs (Apple's strong suite) but I suspect the next version of Windows will CRUSH that again. :-)
MSFT seems incredibly cheap at current prices to me and I am loading up.
Microsoft XBox is up to 40% market share against Sony and Nitendo.
Nitendo invented and owned this market originally.
Borland was the primary tool for developers until Microsoft took over that market with .NET
and I missed a whole bunch of other products...
Microsoft's winning streak is absolutly scary.
For your IM issue, you might want to go with a third-party program like Trillian (http://www.trillian.cc/). It supports AIM, MSN, Yahoo IM, and ICQ simultaneously.
I just tried the beta 2 preview of IE 7. It was INCREDIBLY slow and constantly crashed my computer. I'm generally a die hard microsoft fan as no other company provides the simplicity and widespread use of their products. (don't hate and flame on me)
However, even i was not impressed with this browser. Eiter they will need to make the browser customizable through skins like firefox, or they will not suceed. Tabbed browsing is the reason that I tried ie 7, but performance was a real concern at this point. Not only did it take away my excitement, but made me start wishing that firefox improves their product so i can continue to use it.
...At our local TArget, the sales person told me last weekend that most if not all X-Boxes are being RECALLED as they do not work.
And Sony has not relesed their new Playstation. After it is launched, we can determine who is killing whom.
FWIW---the Gates stealing of JOb's creation is the ultimate "crush".
Generally speaking it's very rare for the firm that is innovative and develops new products /technology to also be the same firm that makes huge amounts of money off the developement. It takes a very different set of tools to develop new technology than it does to make them profitable. Just look at the history of Cisco. If they didn't continually purchase their competition and build a suite of services they would be nothing.
Cisco is a great innovator. It has built a unique, distinctive enterprise channel mixing direct and indirect go to market. That is why it can acquire so many other companies and create value.
Microsoft indirect channel is not so bad either.
Moreover, it is very different to come up with a new product idea and to come up with an innovation that is truly scalable and profitable. At the very least MSFT deserves credit for taking ideas (even of pre-existing) and making real businesses out of them.
If you're going to write an article, do your research. Like the first person said, Safari and other had it before FF. Don't immediatly jump on MS to get on the band wagon. I agree, they are a bit late and a little cluttered, but you're example was poor.
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