This time, it is all different with Google Chrome. Google has been seemingly rushing through the product launch and now it is out of beta just after 100 days. Google is notorious for keeping its product in beta stage for long. Some of the Google products have crossed years easily before Google moved them out of beta. For instance, Google’s Gmail is a clear example that supports our case. It has been over 4 years since its launch. But Gmail is still in its beta stage and it is adding new features and fine-tuning the product. It is not only Gmail that has been in beta for a long time, it is also another famous tool of Google that has been in beta phase for long and it is the photo editing software of Google, Picasa.
Now with its new browser, Google has moved Chrome out of its beta stage in 100 days. Google feels that the product has reached maturity. However, there have been serious security loopholes with Google Chrome. According Google’s assessment, their new browser has reached the desired level of stability and performance. Though Google’s Chrome has been moved out of its beta phase, the work has not stopped yet.
Probably Google has other marketing plans for Chrome and its beta tag would be hindering their efforts. It has very little market share as of now and it is in no way going to compete with Internet Explorer or Mozilla FireFox. The current market share of Google Chrome is roughly about 0.83%. It is not surprising to see that the market share of this new browser is so low. First of all, it has been in the market for a very short time and secondly, there has been no serious marketing of this browser by Google. Google Chrome should compete with other browsers that have been in the market for over a decade. Though Google has shown exceptional abilities to understand the needs of its users in the search industry, browser game is an entirely different story. Only the browsers that win the trust of the online community can succeed. That way Mozilla Firefox has done well in projecting itself as a highly secure browser. Google has rather been too hasty to launch its beta version because it came into the market when it was still not perfect.
The initial security issues faced by the consumers have dealt very negative blows to this browser’s market share. Now with the latest move of Google moving it out of the beta phase, it can elicit further negative response from the online community. Google will be using OEM to market its new browser by paying the company to bundle it with their PCs. They are also in talks with Dell to load their PCs with preinstalled Chrome components. This was one of the strategies followed by Microsoft; it marketed its IE browsers by packaging it with their Windows OS. Since Google does not have an OS of its own, striking deals with companies to bundle with their PCs is the only viable solution.