HUA HIN, Thailand - Google's Chrome
ended last year as the big winner in the battle of
the browsers, winning market share at the cost of
rivals Internet Explorer, Apple's Safari and
Mozilla's Firefox.
Chrome ended the year
with a 19.11% share of the market, up 0.93 points
in December. Global usage of Microsoft's Internet
Explorer declined 0.77 points in December from the
previous month to 51.87% market share, according
to researcher Net Marketshare. Mozilla's Firefox
fell a fraction to 21.83%, with Apple's Safari
also easing slightly to 4.97% of the global
browser market.
Firefox's initial growth
at the expense of IE has now halted and the
alternative browser of choice seems to be Chrome.
Mozilla dropped the ball last month when
reports of a software
bug flooded in just after
the release of its latest version, Firefox 9. The
developers rapidly patched it as version 9.0.1,
although there seem to be a lot of problems with
Mozilla's rapid release schedule.
The
company can look forward to taking a little more
time with code development this year, as it will
enjoy a US$300 million cash injection for three
years thanks to Google, which is paying to remain
Firefox's search provider. Google's decision to
support a rival browser can only spell bad news
for Microsoft and IE.
Microsoft declared
the demise of IE6 this week as usage of the
stricken browser dropped below 1% in the US. "IE6
has been the punchline of browser jokes for a
while, and we've been as eager as anyone to see it
go away," the head of IE development at Microsoft
said on a company blog.
According to
Microsoft, most of the remaining IE6 users are in
China, where one in four PCs still use the
decade-old browser to access the Internet. This
was attributed to the high usage of Windows XP in
the country which, according to Net Applications,
still runs on 70% of Chinese computers.
Google sucker-punched its own browser this
week when it penalized it for underhanded
marketing tactics involving teams of bloggers
posting low quality content on the web in order to
insert links to boost the target website's search
positioning.
Chrome's home page was
demoted out of the first page for the search term
"browser" and has had its Page Rank reduced for a
period of 60 days. The company has said it did not
authorize a campaign to pay for sponsored blog
posts and the action was taken independently by
Internet advertising agent Essence Digital, which
has apologized for the goof.
CES The new year is the time for
trade shows and they don't come bigger than the
Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which will
open its doors to an expected 150,000 attendees
from January 10 to 13. 2011 was dubbed the "year
of the tablet" [See Absent
Apple haunts CES pit. This year's show has
been dedicated to ultrabooks - higher-end thin and
lightweight ultraportable computers, somewhere
between a netbook and a laptop.
The
numbers of big names usually in attendance are
dwindling. Last year, Apple pulled out stating
that it was above trade shows and this year
Microsoft announced that this would be the last it
attends. CES is also losing support from major PC
players - the likes of Dell, HP, and Lenovo have
scaled down their presence if they have one at
all.
Conversely, Asian mobile device
manufacturers such as Samsung, Sony, LG, Toshiba,
Acer and Asus are showing greater commitment to
the event as the consumer electronics market moves
towards mobile computing and away from desktops.
Things to be expected at the 2012 CES
include Windows 8 tablets, Android tablets, hybrid
laptop/tablet devices, 3D TV without the tacky
glasses, Google TV and other alternatives, and a
slew of ultrabooks with Intel and partners
showcasing as many as 50 of the sleek units all
offering stiff competition to Apple's Macbook Air.
Industry Internet stalwart Yahoo
has gone to PayPal to source its latest chief
executive, Scott Thompson, who joins the company
with hopes of reviving its once dominant position
in the industry. The 54-year-old president of
eBay's PayPal electronic payments unit has been
tasked with turning around Yahoo's core online
advertising business which has suffered at the
hands of Google's monopoly.
The last CEO,
Carol Bartz, was shown the door by the board who
grew impatient with the lack of turnaround during
her two-year tenure. Thompson's survival at the
top depends on his ability to duplicate his
successes at PayPal, where he increased annual
revenue from US$2 billion in 2007 to $3.4 billion
in 2010.
BlackBerry-maker Research In
Motion is also having a shakeup at the top due to
disappointment from investors. Co-chairmen Mike
Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie may be replaced this
month according to a report by Forbes. A board
restructure also appears to be imminent.
The company lost a huge share of its
largest market, the US, and its stock plummeted
over 70% last year due to disappointing quarterly
results and delays in product launches. RIM has
enjoyed successes in emerging markets but they
have not been sufficient to quell the pangs of
hungry investors.
Martin J Young
is an Asia Times Online correspondent based in
Thailand.
(Copyright 2012 Asia Times
Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
contact us about sales, syndication and
republishing.)
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CES
