Ben May tweeted an article on ars technica about Google's participation in the EC's efforts to regulate Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser bundling with their Windows OS.

At this point, is this really a concern? Computer users have grown savvy enough to be able to choose which browser they use, with several available in the online marketplace for free. MS's IE is a browser that works fine for many people, and those who don't like it, for whatever reason, can easily switch to another one. This is evidenced by the growing success Mozilla's Firefox browser, which in January 2009 topped 21% market share, which is a 4% increase from last year (source). Microsoft still has approximately 67% of the market, bu that number is falling quickly and significantly, .

Here's a chart showing browser market shares as of January, 2009:


You know what that tells me? People finally understand that there are choices out there! Firefox, Safari, Opera, Chrome... these are all readily available and easily installable.

As far as bundling IE with Windows, I for one think that a browser should ABSOLUTELY come installed in an operating system. Upon box-opening and setup, consumers should be able to get right out onto the internet. If they didn't have a browser, how would they go online and download the one that they want?

Now granted, MS used to make it difficult for the installation and adoption of outside browsers, but that changed in 2001 with United States vs. Microsoft. Looks like the EC wants to revisit that, and Google - champion of self-regulation - is jumping on the gravy train to try and cut IE out of Windows. Google's cash-cow deal providing the search box for Firefox, and the release of their own browser Chrome (also with built-in Google search, of course), is a great incentive to try and loosen Microsoft's hold on the browser market, but it smacks of hypocrisy. Tell you what Google: make a browser that people want to use, and they will use it! I promise you!

And what about Apple? Their OS X comes paired with their Safari browser, but no one is demanding they unbundle it. Maybe as their market share grows, regulators could take a closer look at them.

Wow! I never thought I would be defending Microsoft...

I needed to get out of the house today, and decided to take a drive to Tustin. Why Tustin you may ask? Because that is the closest Circuit City I could find. First Comp-USA, then The Good Guys, now knows Circuit City is going out of business... and I wanted to see the deals. I had heard that everything was on sale from 30-50% off, and thought I might be able to pick up some sweet items at good prices... Boy was I wrong!

Upon entry to the store, I was immediately hit with a wave of regret. The store looked like an earthquake had hit it about a week before. Gone were the amply-stocked shelves, brimming with fine electronic equipment and accessories. In their place were dozens of empty shelves, lonely clam-shelled products hanging solo from mislabeled hooks. What were once 8 aisles of hit CDs and DVDs has beend reduced to about an aisle and a half of close-outs, no-names and Big Momma's House 2. All that is left are open boxes of accessories, little-known titles and floor model TVs, stereos and speakers. Many of the the boxes of smaller products and accessories were open, strewn about hap-hazardly. The employees all had these dejected looks on their faces. All this was to be expected.

What really came as a surprise to me were the prices... they were NOT very good at all! Plasma, DLP and LCD TVs (floor models, open boxes) were "on sale" for 30% off, but those prices were just about what their list prices on line were - new! I looked at a pair of Sony Mdr-As50G headphones. They were 50% off, and STILL came out more expensive than their online counterparts (see link).

And there lies the issue. Everyone credits stores like Best Buy and Wal-Mart for busting CC, but I submit that online sales are the primary reason. Keeping in mind that the entire consumer electronics sector fell by 26% in 2008, online electronic sales fell only 5% in the same period (comscore report Jan.2, 2008). Online, consumers can find a much wider selection of products and marketplaces, not to mention product research and reviews. The only drawback is paying for/waiting for shipping, but that is easy to get over once people realize how much they are actually saving. With the reduced overhead of an online store, they can keep the prices lower. And now, with increased consumer price sensitivity due to the economy, (we're in a recession, you know), look for those people who continued to patronize brick-and-mortar because they liked the idea of getting what they want right away or because they were not yet comfortable with online purchases to begin to shift their purchasing patterns more online.

Personally, I don't remember the last time I bought any electronics at a brick-and-mortar store, and with my little Circuit City pricing experiment, I don't know the next time I will.