New York — After Google’s Chrome released from beta in January, the new contender to the dominance of Microsoft Internet Explorer’s crown as the number one Web browser, is in discussion with PC vendors to have its Chrome Web browser pre-installed on new computers.
In addition, Google is also planning on versions of the browser for both Mac and Linux users. The sudden shift would considerably bolster the browser war that Google launched against Microsoft when it launched a beta version of its Chrome Web browser in September, in the battle to dominate how users access and interact with the web.
With the final version soon to be released, it appears that Google is seriously mulling over setting up deals with OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturer) which will see the Chrome browser pre-installed on new computers.
Presently, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is the primary browser as a system default, and holds the largest market share because it comes with the Windows Operating system for over a decade.
The search engine company wants to gain more acceptances for its latest project by pre-installing it on new PCs. Many PC vendors such as Dell, HP, Acer and Toshiba are showing interest in a pre-install agreement for Google Chrome on their PCs.
Sundar Pichai, a Google vice president, told The Times Online that the company will explore ways to make Chrome more ubiquitous and “probably do distribution deals” with OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) to get the browser onto new PCs.
“We could work with an OEM and have them ship computers with Chrome pre-installed,” Pichai said in a statement. We will thrust our weight behind it. We have been conservative because it is still in beta, but once we get it out of beta we will work hard at getting the word out, promoting to users, and marketing will be a part of that, he added.
Google undoubtedly requires something to help Chrome gain any traction in a market dominated by two big players. Latest industry figures show that Internet Explorer currently commands more than 70 percent of browser market share. Open source Mozilla Firefox captures roughly 20 percent, with the rest going to others such as Safari, Chrome, and Opera. Ever since in beta for three months, Chrome is utilized by less than 1 per cent of all web users.
Internet Explorer seems untouchable purely because people bizarrely seem to trust Microsoft and so stick with the browser that is pre-installed when they buy their computer. That is the reason why it makes perfect sense for Google to copy that strategy.
Analysts stated that Microsoft finally beaten Netscape Navigator in the first browser wars during the late 1990s primarily because Internet Explorer came installed on computers that operated the Windows operating system, and as a result became the default choice for most web users.
Richard Holway, Chairman of Tech Market View, the industry analysts, said that due to strict anti-trust rulings since, it would be hard to block Google doing deals with computer makers to install Chrome on their PCs.
He said: “If any manufacturer wished to install Chrome — that should now be possible.”
Microsoft said it would not comment on its current commercial or distribution deals with hardware manufacturers. John Curran, UK head of Windows, said he believed Microsoft can withstand the threat posed by Google’s Chrome.
“The browser space is competitive and people end up choosing what is best for them,” he said. “For the overall majority of UK users, that is Internet Explorer.”
The latest version of Microsoft’s browser, Internet Explorer 8, was launched in August. It will come as standard with all PCs using the latest version of its operating system, Windows 7, which should be ready be used on most computers by January 2010.
Pichai said that once a stable and bug-free version of Chrome which is being pre-installed on new computers early next year, Google will make a determined push to advertise its browser to the wider public.
Pichai added that versions of Chrome should also be available to computers using Macintosh or Linux software in the first half of next year, allowing the browser to be used on almost 99 percent of computers worldwide.