The proliferation of connected handheld devices like smartphones and tablet PCs is having a peculiar effect on businesses based in, on, and around the Internet. Once disparate services like email, voice chat, text chat, and web browsing were tied to desktop and laptop computers, and users had to access the vast majority of them using two tools: An operating system and a web browser.
In the age of the iPhone, the operating system market is legitimately competitive for the first time. Unlike in the old days, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) doesn’t rule the OS world. It is in fact struggling to find its place amidst Nokia‘s (NYSE: NOK) Symbian, Research in Motion‘s (NASDAQ: RIMM) BlackBerry OS, Apple Inc.‘s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iOS, and rising star Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android.
The web browser market, however, is still Microsoft’s domain. Internet Explorer still controls the largest user base, accounting for just under 45% of all browsing on the web. The Mozilla Foundation’s Firefox trails behind with 29% of the market, while Google’s Chrome has taken more than 9% of the market, with Apple’s Safari and Opera’s browsers trailing that. In the handset age, though, it’s questionable how much longer the web browser will remain a relevant technology. Where we needed the browser to access email and surf the web, we now have devoted apps for any online service we need to access. Why go to Amazon.com when Amazon.com‘s (NASDAQ: AMZN) Kindle app is free and just two clicks away? Why go to Facebook.com when the Facebook tool is right there?
A new start up backed by Netscape founder Marc Andreessen thinks that the browser needn’t die just yet. The key to keeping the technology relevant is to revitalize its functions and tie it to those web services most relevant to users today. That’s the driving philosophy behind RockMelt, the web browser coming from the Andreessen-backed start up of the same name. Announced today, the new browser is targeted at social network users specifically, with a suite of tools built into the browser interface to allow easy access to a user’s profile on Facebook, Twitter, and a number of other networks. RockMelt’s press release says that the browser “makes it easy for you to do the things you do every single day on the Web: share and keep up with your friends, stay up-to-date on news, information, and search.”
Built on the same Chromium open source platform developed by Google, RockMelt shares many features with Chrome. Its built in functionality with multiple social networks is also something that can be replicated through plug-ins in Mozilla’s Firefox, but RockMelt seems more user friendly, at least on the surface. The new company will have a great deal of trouble getting its new browser to the people though. Unlike Google, which has been able to leverage their reach as a leading provider of email service through Gmail and the most trafficked search engine on the planet to push adoption of the Chrome browser, RockMelt is going to rely on word of mouth to spread. It’s also questionable if incorporating social network features will help make the browser an exciting technology again. Introducing news feeds, friend lists, and other information streams into a browser window isn’t exactly a new idea. AOL‘s (NYSE: AOL) client from 1996 had those features.
As of this writing, Anthony Agnello did not own a position in any of the stocks named here.
