I wish I could say that I’m surprised, but AOL has decided to kick the can on further Netscape Navigator developments. The Netscape team will publish security updates for one more month (until February 1, 2008), and after that Netscape Navigator will just be a memory. Here’s what the Netscape blog had to say:
While internal groups within AOL have invested a great deal of time and energy in attempting to revive Netscape Navigator, these efforts have not been successful in gaining market share from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Recently, support for the Netscape browser has been limited to a handful of engineers tasked with creating a skinned version of Firefox with a few extensions.
Without Netscape one can only wonder where the web would be. They were a major stepping stone for Internet use, and I’m sure many of you remember using early versions of Netscape Navigator. Now it will be nothing more than a story we tell our kids.
Netscape’s latest attempt to provide a version of Firefox with a custom theme and extensions didn’t take off as well as they had hoped. Many of the features available in Netscape 9 were also available in Firefox as extensions, which gave existing Firefox users little reason to switch to Netscape.
Now I’m left wondering where existing Netscape users will go? Switching to Firefox would make the most sense, but something in my head says that people are going to make the move back to Internet Explorer.
@Ryan:
I don’t think AOL’s Netscape Navigator users will join the Microsoft bandwagon. It’s fresh in their memory, that it was precisely Microsoft who stabbed them to death by embedding IE into Windows.
Netscape never recovered from that fatal blow. IMHO, Netscape users will switch to Mozilla Firefox which better represent their nostalgic interests. It’s to be remembered that Firefox is the Phoenix bird of Netscape.
The King is Dead! Long Live the King!
Best Regards,
Omar.-
I agree with you to a point Omar. I do believe that there are still a large majority of Netscape users that have been with them since the beginning, and have just refused to switch to anything else. Netscape came out a year before Internet Explorer, so there will still be some people who have yet to take the Internet Explorer plunge.
God, please dont let this happen with Opera
I dont think that is going to happen any time soon. Opera has a significantly larger user base than the present day netscape.
Farewell My’ol Friend. Netscape had been my favourite browser( Atleast till ver 6 came out) and will always remain in my memory.
I think Opera is pretty safe. They have been entering other markets, such as mobile, where they have been really successful. Not to mention their desktop browser has a pretty high market share in countries like Russia. It’s something like 20% there I think.
Stop worrying. Opera’s desktop revenue increased 113% in the 3rd quarter compared to the last year.
