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Maxthon CEO Talks About Microsoft's Antitrust Case and Future Plan of Maxthon BrowserBEIJING, Aug 06, 2009 /PRNewswire-Asia via COMTEX/ -- Recently, Maxthon CEO Jeff Chen was interviewed by China Times (http://www.chinatimes.cc ) on the latest trends in browser development in China and the rest of the world. Here is a condensed version of the interview. China Times: Recently in Europe, Microsoft conceded for the first time on the bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows system, Is this an opportunity for other browser developers? If so, what does Maxthon think about this opportunity? Chen: Following its concession on the bundling of Windows Media Player, Microsoft, under enormous pressure, had to concede further, on the bundling of Internet Explorer. This indicates that Internet browsers are playing more and more a major role in the Internet industry, and have become a strategic matter in many countries. While the concession will likely encourage many new entrants to the browser development business and inevitably heat up the competition, it also provides an opportunity for fairer competition. As for Maxthon, we welcome such change as this could increase our exposure to general users. As the biggest Chinese-made browser brand in Chinese, we always explore ways to introduce our high quality product to more users. Certainly this new opportunity is equal to every browser developer. So we will be putting even more efforts on product research and development to win users with quality. [The interview was conducted before the details of Microsoft's "concession" had been fully made public. Microsoft suggested that all computer users in Europe would choose among 10 browsers from an on-screen menu. But the plan also called for banning from the ballot any browsers that use the same rendering engine that Microsoft uses to display Web pages. That would eliminate Maxthon and other browsers as a choice for Europeans. Maxthon is currently studying ways to counter Microsoft's suggestion. See http://tinyurl.com/n4zybs for further details of the Microsoft plan.] China Times: Is the development of Maxthon 3.0 [which will use a non-Microsoft rendering engine in addition to the one it now shares with Internet Explorer] a sign that Chinese developers are moving to the non-IE sector? What are the advantages of using a non-IE rendering engine? Chen: Since Maxthon released its first version 2002, Maxthon has always been a leading developer of browsers in China that use some Microsoft tools. Maxthon has also won a lot of worldwide honors for Chinese developers. Yet we always regret that Chinese-made browsers have barely any involvement in the development of browser engines. We believe that a genuine browser developer must have the ability to develop a browser engine. Eventually Maxthon established a team early last year and officially entered the browser engine development sector. With these core technologies, we can make drastic improvements in speed, security, and stability. And only with the development of our own core technologies can we say we are on the same ground with the foreign competitors. China Times: How does Maxthon view the browser war? What are the impacts to the industry in the future? Chen: Worldwide, the browser competition is more about the promotion of Web standards and anti-monopoly. Adopting Web standards will improve content creation and user experience, and abolishing monopoly will lead to fairer competition and a healthier environment. Both benefit the industry in the long term. In China, the competition is more confined comparatively. We hope that browser developers in China can give user experience and technology improvements the highest priority, collaboratively advance relevant technologies, and facilitate web site standardization. These will be instrumental to unifying the Internet industry in China with the rest of the world. The market share of IE is dropping rapidly in China. At this rate, a full-scale browser war could soon break out in China. We hope that developers would compete constructively and improve together for the benefit of users. China Times: Due to the rise of 3G networks, cell phone browsing will be a trend. How do you see the 3G market? Chen: 3G is hot. But there are a lot of variables. At the moment we are more inclined to wait and see. For more information, please contact: Western Hemisphere Ron White Email: [email protected] Tel: +1-210-683-1444 Eastern Hemisphere: firs73 a.k.a Selena Email: [email protected] Tel: +86-138-1027-3713 http://twitter.com/firs73 SOURCE Maxthon http://twitter.com/firs73 |