Safari to Kill Opera?


Opera Software's development team have expressed doubt over whether they will continue to develop a browser for OS X, a ZDNet story says.

Opera has released version 7.0 of its Windows browser, but has yet to name a date for the release of a Macintosh version. Apple's recent Safari release is seen as the key factor behind Opera's reluctance to commit any future development time an OS X browser.

"I'm not a quitter, and our company isn't a quitter, but it really is up to Apple," said Jon von Tetzchner, chief executive of Opera. "The Mac platform may not be viable for us any longer. We have contacted Apple and asked them if they want a third-party browser, and we'll see what the answer is, They could say we want to use Opera as the core engine. If they want KHTML as a simple little browser, and also something more advanced, we would be happy to provide it. Obviously, if we don't get any positive signs from Apple, then we have to think about it."

Mac users waited seemingly forever for Opera to first appear on the Mac platform, and the developer originally committed to build OS X, PowerPC and 68K versions.

Opera will make a decision on Mac development over the next two months.

Analysis: The ZDNet's story's conclusion echoes the conclusions reached in IGM's recent story on Apple's iApps versus third-party developers. The argument was that Opera, among others, would see no incentive to develop a pay-ware product against Apple's free Safari. Many readers commented 'Compete - or get out'. Fair enough. Competition is good. Choice is good. But it's hard competing against a $6 billion company. And, ultimately, the endgame of all competition is monopoly. Which equals, of course, zero choice.

But I guess we knew that already.

The point is, what if iTunes or Safari were our only choices? We can't think of anyone who'd rationally argue that "the iApps are so way ahead of the rest - we don't need a choice."

After all, in the absence of competition, that could lead Apple to [gulp] charge for them...