Can Netscape Browers Reach the 20% Level Again

Current Usage at 7%

[cyril kearney]

According to WebSideStory IE 6.0 usage has soared to a 30% share worldwide over the last 7 months.

Netscapes share has dropped to a meer 7%. AOL/Time Warner, the owner of Netscape however has about 13% of the global browser market. Their browsers are primarily based on IE technology.

If AOL can successfully shift it's customers to a Netscape browser, it could give new life to the Browser Wars.

Here is the url to the underlining statistics.
[statmarket.com...]

[lazerzubb]

Don't think so. IMHO the Brand: Netscape (Navigator) give's the "normal user" the thought of SLOW, Netscape delivered browsers who where slower to deliver pages than IE did, and therefore people chosed IE instead of Netscape.
But i do think we will see competition from others, especially since it's been reported that 15% of all computer users in Asia use a *Unix system.

[caine]

I used to use NN as a way of avoiding IE for multiple reasons. Back after a healthy dose of problems, i use IE for PR and Opera. Can't ever see NN recovering. my logs suggest NN is around 10% at the moment, i think it will just keep sliding, with opera picking up the pieces.

[rpking]

> it's been reported that 15% of all computer users in Asia use a *Unix system.

Where is this stat from? If true, very interesting...

[tedster]

If AOL really gets down to it as they develop AOL 8.0 around Netscape and then exports that hard-won knowledge into a new version of Netscape, I think they could resuscitate the old brand.

Imagine all the AOL ads in direct mail, print and broadcast saying "powered by Netscape". It would be in their best interest all around - but the thing's got to work and be lock-down secure. They can't release another total hoser like 6.0.

[ggrot]

I agree w/ lazerzubb. I think that netscape as a brand is a losing game. However, calling it mozilla would avoid those difficulties.

[lazerzubb]

rpking:

Oooops, here is the right story: An analyst company have come up with conclusion that more than 15% of all business that uses computers in Asia uses Linux (not all *Unix)

[papabaer]

There is a good point being made here: branding liabilities.

Without a doubt Netscape has a core of dedicated users (thanks for holding the web back you guys!)

But conversely, there is also a very large segment who have simply given up on Netscape, even after trying so very hard to like it. We all know the problems...

Worse still is Netscape's indecision to support their own new technology. I mean really!!! Why still offer 4.79? It gives me the impression of a company that does not fully believe in it's new product. BIG MISTAKE imho! It's like Time-Warner not wanting to use AOL email (Hey! Wait a minute..)

It would almost seem to be in AOL's best interest to entirely scrap the Netscape brand, perhaps even distance itself from Mozilla (guilty by association!) - I know this will cause a lot of people to flinch, but truthfully, across the masses, the Netscape brand does NOT elicit a good response. At least not anymore.

(edited by: papabaer at 5:27 pm (utc) on Mar. 27, 2002)

[rcjordan]

For all practical purposes, the Web has become a one-browser world over the past few years. Web authors mostly write and test their sites to work with one browser: Internet Explorer. If the sites work with Netscape, Opera or other small-time browsers, that's a bonus, but not one to keep most Web authors late at the office tweaking their code.

If Netscape becomes the default browser for AOL's client software, developer perceptions of the one-browser world would rapidly dissipate.

Web developers wary of AOL switch [news.cnet.com]

[txbakers]

I deal with the school market where Netscape is still popular, but only by default.

I have spoken with several tech admins and all are doing away with Netscape when the school year rolls around.

I think Netscape is finished.

And as for Mozilla? Can the average Joe or Jane on the street tell you what a Mozilla is? Perhaps Opera, but not Mozilla.

I think Mozilla is still a geek thing.

[lazerzubb]

Netscape were used in many schools because it's not "Root program" you couldn't launch program with it etc' as you can with IE.

[papabaer]

The swap would "strongly encourage designers and developers to author with Web standards supported by...other browsers, instead of crafting sites optimized exclusively for IE," said Jeffrey Zaldman, a Web standards gadfly who co-founded the Web Standards Project.

Zaldman? Gadfly? Who says any press is good press! ;)