Bundle wars
Sony started pre-installing Google's Chrome browser on its Vaio PCs this summer, reports the Financial Times.
This is the first OEM deal for Chrome, as Google attempts to eat into a market dominated by Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE). Google told the FT that it was in talks to establish similar deals with other computer makers, but that that the Sony arrangement was "experimental", whatever that means.
Brian Rakowski, product management director for Chrome, bemoaned the lack of interest in the browser market on behalf of the majority of consumers. "Awareness is shockingly low," he told the FT. "It's absolutely a problem that people don't know what a browser is, or how to evaluate one."
A problem for Google certainly, which still only has a small fraction of the browser market, but for most people a browser is just a window onto the Internet and they all seem to do pretty much the same job.
Thus, whichever browser comes pre-installed on their PC is likely to be the one they stick with, which is one of the main reasons behind the ubiquity of IE and why the bundling of IE with Windows has become the concern of competition authorities.
A consequence of Microsoft's legal problems associated with IE is that it will offer a browser ballot screen in Windows 7 (in Europe at least) when users first attempt to get onto the Internet with the still-bundled IE, to allow them to choose their default browser from a list, which includes Chrome. Google has clearly decided this isn't enough and wants to be more proactive about promoting its own browser.
