From: Mustafa Akgul (akgul@Bilkent.EDU.TR)
Date: Mon 24 Jun 2002 - 19:47:35 EEST
Date: Mon, 24 Jun 2002 09:22:21 -0700 (PDT)
From: Grid Today <grid@gridtoday.com>
Message-Id: <200206241622.JAA55957@gridtoday.com>
To: akgul@Bilkent.EDU.TR
Subject: 100036 ANDREESSEN INTERVIEW: BROWSER WARS AREN'T COMING BACK 06.24.02
X-Virus-Scanned: by AMaViS snapshot-20010714
ANDREESSEN INTERVIEW: BROWSER WARS AREN'T COMING BACK 06.24.02
by Matt Berger GRIDtoday
==============================================================================
The 30-year-old Silicon Valley transplant also had something to say about an
unrelated topic that he should know something about -- the so-called browser
wars.
Having joined in 1994 what would come to be Netscape Communications Corp, to
help develop the first widely commercialized Web browser, Andreessen is
credited with bringing the World Wide Web to the masses. In the process, he
found himself part of a battle over market share against Microsoft Corp, and
its competing Internet Explorer Web browser.
Microsoft won the war, and in 1999 Netscape was acquired by America Online
Inc. Andreessen briefly went to work as chief technology officer for the
Internet company, but three years later, Andreessen has left the browser wars
behind him to focus on Loudcloud, based in Sunnyvale, California.
Meanwhile, AOL has signaled that it may try to reignite the browser battle.
The company has ended a deal with Microsoft in which AOL agreed to use
Internet Explorer as the browser for its AOL Internet service in exchange for
having its software installed on Windows PCs. The company has also begun
testing a Netscape browser in place of Internet Explorer on its AOL and
CompuServe Internet services.
IDG: Some people are saying that the browser wars are reemerging.
Andreessen: Do you believe it?
IDG: That's my question for you.
Andreessen: Well, let's see. Microsoft is up to what in browser market share?
Ninety-three percent?
IDG: Well, do you think if AOL were able to distribute Netscape to its
millions of Internet subscribers that it would revive the war?
Andreessen: Internally at AOL, they don't think about browser market share.
They think about getting AOL out to millions of people, so they'll do whatever
is most expeditious in doing that. Now, if Microsoft cuts off Internet
Explorer from them then, yeah, clearly they'll be able to switch to Netscape.
They just don't have any internal motivation to get browser market share.
IDG: So then Netscape is basically its plan B?
Andreessen: Yeah, I think so. When they originally did the acquisition, the
big motivation around it was to be able to have a bargaining chip .... to get
better terms. They could say, we own Netscape, and we're willing to use
Internet Explorer, but if you don't give us distribution through the Windows
desktop we're going to use Netscape and we're going to double its market share
overnight and cause you guys lots of problems. There's no internal goal at
AOL, or at least when I was there, to go get browser market share.
IDG: What kind of a role do you think the browser plays these days?
Andreessen: Good news, bad news. The bad news is the browser is kind of done.
Essentially, nothing new has happened since it got adopted in the mainstream
over the past four years. Microsoft releases a new version of Internet
Explorer, and it's like, what exactly are the new features? There's probably
three or four new features in there, but who cares? So that's the bad news.
The good news is, it's everywhere now. The concept is everywhere, the
implementations are everywhere, everybody uses it, everybody understands the
metaphor and the shift in the architecture of computing around the browser is
very serious. Ten years ago, client-server (computing) meant having to use a
centralized database, and it meant that all the applications were distributed
on fat clients, which meant they couldn't change very often. It meant
applications were hard to use and it meant that they only could be really used
by a limited number of people -- typically, your own employees. And so
companies had no way of building applications that extended out to their
customers and partners. The shift in the computing architecture when it went
to a Web architecture was very serious, because now you've got a centralized
distribution mechanism for applications. Put an application up on a central
server or set of servers and anybody with a browser can access it, and it's
easy to use. That's really a permanent swing in the industry.
IDG: And that's how Loudcloud has developed its software, right?
Andreessen: Right. What we did when we started our company three years ago is
we said, that shift (to Web-based application development) has happened, or is
happening. People are going to be building Web applications for everything,
which is basically what's happened.
IDG: What is the future of the browser? It would seem that the browser as we
know it is too clunky for many new computing devices. Can you foresee what
might take its place?
Andreessen: The browser metaphor does not work on this (pointing to his cell
phone) or this (his BlackBerry pager from Research in Motion Ltd). You know
what WAP (wireless application protocol) stands for; it's the sound a WAP cell
phone makes when you throw it in the wastebasket. It was a disaster, and it
was because the browser metaphor didn't work on the cell phone. There are
going to have to be new metaphors invented, new clients, new user interface
models, but they've got to be suited to the device.
This is what (Apple Computer Inc, chief executive officer) Steve Jobs
understands that a lot of people have trouble with: Form factor really counts.
What shape it is, how far away from it you are when you use it, how big the
screen is, whether it has a keyboard, whether it uses a stylus, those things
determine how it gets used more than anything else, and you can't force the
wrong metaphor on people.
That also means that convergence won't happen. It also means that convergence
is exactly incorrect in almost all cases. Divergence is the future because
these things are actually all different form factors.
IDG: Nine states and the District of Columbia, in their pursuit of tough
antitrust remedies on Microsoft that go beyond what the company agreed to in
its proposed settlement with the Department of Justice, have fought to force
Microsoft to give away the code to Internet Explorer. If the judge approves
that remedy proposal, do you see any benefit to users and developers?
Andreessen: Generally, Microsoft is a partner of Loudcloud, and we work really
well with them at Loudcloud because we support their technology and we have a
bunch of customers running on Windows. So we don't take formal positions on
remedies or lawsuits.
IDG: How about just the idea of having an open source browser, the Opera Web
browser for instance. Is that beneficial to users or developers?
Andreessen: How much (browser) market share does Opera have?
IDG: Let's pretend Opera has a 93 percent market share. Does it make a
difference that its code is open source?
Andreessen: (Pause). I don't think so. For mass market adoption (open source)
is clearly not compelling yet or (Opera) would have more adoption than it
does. Other things are more important. Bundling with the (operating system) is
clearly more important for adoption. When you're competing against something
that's both being (promoted) by a monopoly and is free, good luck competing,
have fun.
My attitude is, everybody should try competing with Microsoft once in their
life.
Once.
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