This just in: forcing a mandatory selection from a mandatory screen results in people making a mandatory selection to go about their day.
Even should users select at random, would this result in a market share increase for alternative browsers.
Celebrating this gain early is firmly “counting the chickens before they’ve hatched”. Let’s see if users actually stick to these alternative browsers or if the market merely reciprocates what we have on desktop: lots of Chrome users.
I’d eat my hat if it turns out any different, because I’m not so naive to believe that one mandatory click-through would stand against Google’s web properties constantly asking the user to switch to Chrome.
Last time I checked, moving even more of the market under a single vendor was the opposite of competition and the consumer’s interest.
There is also a significant distrust of Google (and other large tech companies) growing in Europe, and probably most other places outside of the US. Tie that with the fact that they are now charging people for using photos/email etc, there has never been a better time to cut ties with the company where possible. I'm sure Chrome will remain the most popular browser for now but the younger generations might be more inclined to use products with less "baggage".
Considering lots of states and countries in the EU are trying to move their public sector stuff (incl. schools, school-issued devices etc.) away from FAANG licenses, children will start to get more exposure to alternative solutions early on.
I think the current wave of absolute failure to respect or even understand European privacy needs coming from California is going to lead to generational knock-on effects.
There's a very good cultural reason why no-one here has even heard about green/blue/yellow chat messages, why Apple has no majority market share, why state and federal governments all over the EU have tried and are still trying to ditch Microsoft. Only now it's not just about the cultural difference in respect for the privacy of your fellow man, now it's also about strategic importance and even our own sovereignty.
Are they on FAANG stuff already? Our local schools use lots of Microsoft for everything, which is super annoying, when even Google can provide a better solution than that.
> This just in: forcing a mandatory selection from a mandatory screen results in people making a mandatory selection to go about their day. Even should users select at random, would this result in a market share increase for alternative browsers.
It doesn't make sense for an uptick in usage of smaller browsers to be just an artifact of forcing the decision, because the easiest and least cognitive overhead choice when forced to make that decision would be to just pick the default browser you would have used anyway, like Safari on iPhone or Chrome on Android. So the uptick must be the result of people actually wanting different browsers now that they have been made aware of the other options and presented with a convenient Choice up front. Which makes sense for the eu, considering as other commenters have said the recent distrust and resentment of American tech companies there.
I'm more hopeful. Just as most wouldn't bother digging through their settings to change their browser away from Safari, they also won't bother digging through their settings to change their browser _back_ to Safari. I think it'll make a small dent, which can hopefully be capitalised on later.
Even should users select at random, would this result in a market share increase for alternative browsers.
Celebrating this gain early is firmly “counting the chickens before they’ve hatched”. Let’s see if users actually stick to these alternative browsers or if the market merely reciprocates what we have on desktop: lots of Chrome users.
I’d eat my hat if it turns out any different, because I’m not so naive to believe that one mandatory click-through would stand against Google’s web properties constantly asking the user to switch to Chrome.
Last time I checked, moving even more of the market under a single vendor was the opposite of competition and the consumer’s interest.