浏览器大战硝烟再起

    在台式机上，网页浏览器曾经为了争夺市场控制权而大打出手。如今随着越来越多的用户通过智能手机、平板电脑和更新的“手机平板电脑”等获取信息，浏览器大战的战场也从电脑转移到了手机。那么，谁将是最终的赢家？

    早在2012年6月，竞争便已陷入白热化：据网站通讯流量检测机构StatCounter公布， 安卓以约22%的份额领先，Opera浏览器22%紧随其后，然后是iOS平台上的Safari浏览器，占比21%。之后，谷歌（Google）的安卓浏览器始终稳居榜首，份额已经达到31%，iOS则为24%，Opera浏览器有所减少，跌至15%。

    去年夏天，安卓浏览器的份额遥遥领先于Opear浏览器与iOS的Safari浏览器。

    安卓设备的日益扩张并不奇怪。据分析公司IDC公布，安卓手机制造商在2013年第一季度的出货量达到1.62亿台；苹果出货量为3,700万台。（为满足读者的好奇心，顺便公布一下，名列第三的是Window Phone，出货量为700万台。）

    2010年底发布的一款针对电脑开发的浏览器RockMet，最近宣布将改变方向。在发布后两年半时间里，这款整合了社交网络与RSS源订阅功能的创新浏览器，仅有450万用户。不管你喜不喜欢，台式机市场始终都在微软（Microsoft）Internet Explorer、火狐（Firefox）和谷歌Chrome等几大巨头的统治之下。Rockmelt联合创始人兼首席技术官蒂姆•霍维斯最近对《华尔街日报》（The Wall Street Journal）表示：“时至今日，浏览器只是一扇挡在[消费者]路上的又大又笨的窗户。”近期，Rockmelt公布了Rockmelt for Web，这是一个互联网用户通过任何浏览器均可以访问的内容聚合器。

    在iOS平台上，可供用户选择的浏览器并不少，从Opear到知名度较低的原子核浏览器（Atomic Web Browser），各方都瞄准手机互联网浏览器领域，使出浑身解数，力图脱颖而出：如网站加载加速、处理Windows系统的各种办法，书签同步等等功能层出不穷。

    但第三方开发者仍面临一个问题。如同Internet Explorer是微软Windows操作系统中预装的浏览器一样，安卓也是安卓操作系统默认的浏览器，同样iOS的默认浏览器是Safari。这也是为何根据StatCounter的统计数据，第三方开发的浏览器目前远远落后的原因。弗雷斯特研究公司（Forrester）分析师查尔斯•戈尔文解释称：“Safari与安卓是打开链接的默认浏览器，如何克服这个问题？”你可以下载其他浏览器，但与个人电脑可以将如火狐或谷歌Chrome设置成默认浏览器不同，移动设备并没有这样的设置。“除非移动设备也有同样的设置，否则我们不会看到太多真正的竞争。”

    而据《华尔街日报》报道，拥有1.2亿用户的傲游浏览器（Maxthon）以及其他公司，正在计划推出台式机、手机和车载产品使用的浏览器，其中包括今年与先锋电子（Pioneer Electronics）达成的一笔交易，届时司机与乘客可以通过触摸屏设备浏览网络。

    换言之，浏览器大战远未结束。只不过战火已经蔓延到了更多交叉平台。（财富中文网）

    翻译：刘进龙/汪皓

    There was a time when web browsers duked it out for dominance on the desktop. But with users consuming information more and more on smartphones, tablets, and newer form factors like "phablets," the battleground has shifted to mobile. Who's winning?

    As recently as June 2012, the competition was in a dead heat: Android led with nearly 22%, followed by Opera at 22%, then Safari on iOS with 21% according to StatCounter. Google's (GOOG) Android has cemented a solid lead since then with 31%, iOS at 24%, and Opera trailing with 15%.

    The stock Android browser pulled ahead of Opera and Safari for iOS last summer.

    That shouldn't come as a surprise, given the proliferation of Android devices. According to the analytics firm IDC, Android phone makers shipped 162 million devices during the first quarter of 2013; Apple (AAPL) shipped 37 million. (And in case you're curious, Windows Phone came third, with 7 million.)

    RockMelt, a desktop-focused web browser that launched in late 2010, recently announced it was changing course. In the two-and-a-half years since launch, the innovative browser which integrated social network and RSS feed integration right into the browser window, only signed up 4.5 million users. Like it or not, the desktop market is a landscape ruled with a virtual iron fist by the likes of Microsoft (MSFT) Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome. "Browsers today are just big dumb windows in [consumers'] way," Rockmelt co-founder and CTO Tim Howes told The Wall Street Journal recently. Rockmelt recently announced Rockmelt for Web, a content aggregator any Internet user with a browser can access.

    On iOS, there's no shortage of Web browsers to choose, from Opera to the lesser-known Atomic Web Browser, all of which try to put their own spin on mobile Internet browsing to stand out: features like accelerated Web site loading, different ways to juggle Windows, bookmark syncing, among others.

    But there's a problem for third-party developers. Much like Internet Explorer is the pre-loaded browser on Microsoft Windows, Android is the default browser on the Android operating system, as Safari is on iOS. Which is why, according to StatCounter, such offerings are at a distant fourth place right now. "The thing is, Safari and Android are default recipients of your link, and what's going to overcome that?" explains Forrester analyst Charles Golvin. You can download other browsers, but there isn't a setting like on the PC that makes a browser like Firefox or Google Chrome the go-to browser. "Until that's the case, we're not going to get as much realcompetition."

    Still, companies like Maxthon, which The Journal reports has 120 million users, is pushing forward with its own desktop, mobile, and in-car browser offerings, which includes a deal this year with Pioneer Electronics where drivers and passengers can surf the web via touch-screen device.

    Translation: The browser war is far from dead. They're just more cross-platform than ever.