DISCOBLOG

So far, opera mini hasnt crashed yet.

In a few hours, Apple's annual "Back to School" event will commence, with Steve Jobs presenting the latest update to the iPod product line. It's an event that many look forward to and one that shows how Apple dominates the portable music player market. Can you tell me which other company can host an exclusive event for its portable music player product line, every single year, and is still able to attract a huge number of journalists for it? Headlines are made every time Apple has one of these events. That's the captivating power of Apple - making the seemingly routine completely unique.

Just read about Dell's launch of the Inspiron 9 Mini today at 8am CST, Dell's official entry into the netbook market. The price is quite hefty at $399 for the Windows XP version and $349 for the Ubuntu version. The specs are pretty standard netbook stuff (Intel Atom and SSD). Seems like Dell thinks its selling to the enterprise market and can charge as much as they want. Folks who buy netbooks are looking for value for money. I suspect though that the included Box.net software jacked up the pricing somewhat (2GB of online storage with Box.net included). Why would I even want that though? Live Mesh will be out by the end of this year, offering 10G of storage for free. When all the competitors are lowering prices on their netbooks - ASUS, Acer, MSI Wind, HP - and Dell comes out with this, my prediction is that this is going to be a flop unless they change their pricing fast. They do have a deal where if you buy a Studio 15, XPS M1530 or XPS M1330, you can get the Inspiron 9 Mini for $99 (limited time until Sept 8, 2008). Now, that's a good deal, but it's only available in the US. My prediction is that Dell will change its pricing to $349 for the Windows XP version and $299 for the Ubuntu version within one month of launching by eliminating Box.net.

By now, most techies have heard about the impending launch of Chrome, Google's open-source browser, sometime tomorrow (9/2/2009). A number of tech bloggers have already explored how Chrome will affect Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer. Predictably, there's a general consensus in opinion as to what Chrome means - namely, it is Google's way of eroding Microsoft's dominance in the browser market. However, as an Opera user, the more interesting question is how Chrome will affect Opera? Even prior to this announcement, Opera's growth on the desktop is limited. It's potential really lies in the mobile and embedded device markets. The folks who choose Opera over Firefox and Internet Explorer are looking for a different kind of experience. I believe Google's Chrome will become one of the dominant browsers in the coming years, and will establish a new equilibrium in the browser market, with the dominant players (Google, Microsoft and Mozilla) owning 90% of it. The 10% that is left over will be carved up by Opera, Safari, etc. Opera was never a serious competitor to Firefox or Internet Explorer. It is simply an alternative. The impact of Chrome on Opera will be minimal on the desktop, but Opera will face much greater challenges in the mobile space when Android or a mobile version of Chrome is released. The mobile space will be where the future of Opera is determined.