FRAMINGHAM (09-21-95) - Netscape is wasting no time in adding more applications, development capabilities and better integration into its trademark Navigator product.
These efforts focus on repositioning Navigator as the standard interface to all Internet applications and on enhancing content providers' ability to craft customized user interfaces built on the Navigator platform.
The company, which hopes to become the Microsoft of the Web, must make these moves quickly in the shadow of Microsoft's promise of Blackbird, its own development environment for the Web, and before any of the numerous other Web development tools can get a foothold in the market. Netscape has to maintain its position as the technological innovator for several more years or it will quickly find itself stranded in the browser-only space with little prospects for growth.
Announcement Summary
Barely a month after its initial public stock offering, Netscape Communications Corp., the most recognized World Wide Web browser provider, announced its next generation Navigator. Version 2.0 is likely to rapidly dominate the Web both because of its 8 million installed base and an impressive array of new capabilities that extend Navigator from being a simple browser to being a integrated interface development environment for Internet based applications. The product will be released on Sept. 18, 1995 in beta form with general availability in late 1995.
Major new features include:
--Integrated electronic mail, news groups, chat and FTP, as well as performance and security enhancements
--Advanced page layout features and integrated viewers that deal with live objects.
--Netscape Java applets and a scripting language based on Java.
Announcement Details
Netscape Now
With the release of Netscape Navigator 1.2 earlier this year, the company provided a Windows 95 version of the browser plus an enhanced interface for bookmarks that allows users to drag and drop URL addresses from an HTML page into a hierarchical directory. Priced at $39, the package also offers Shortcuts, which create icons for URLs allowing users to double-click on the icon to open the URL.
Netscape also has partnerships with Internet service providers MCI, Netcom, Portal and UUNet to provide access to their networks via Netscape Navigator Personal Edition. The product facilitates the users' registration with an Internet provider. The package includes Qualcomm's Eudora Light for e-mail functionality. Sold via retail outlets as well as Netscape's direct and OEM channels, the Personal Edition is priced at $39.95. Only a year and a half old, Netscape is also building a strong VAR channel with more than 250 VARs signed on.
Recent alliances also further the Navigator's functionality. Macromedia, the provider of the market leading Director multimedia development tool agreed to integrate its software with Netscape's. Similar agreements exist with Sun, Adobe and Progressive Networks.
Navigator 2.0
Navigator 2.0 goes well beyond 1.2 in nearly every aspect of the product. First, it marks the transition of Navigator from being a basic HTML browser into a integrated suite of applications for browsing and communications. The additions include:
--E-mail: full support for SMTP and POP3, integrated address book, automatic message threading and provisions for message encryption and digital signatures.
--FTP: uploading for transmitting files
--IRC: Chat access via frames and autoscrolling.
Netscape also announced performance enhancements including support for client-based image maps, progressive JPEG images and streaming audio and video via Netscape Inline Viewers.
Other enhancements are in the areas of:
--Security: Digital ID via user authentication and digital signatures, secure courier for financial transactions, SMIME for E-mail and SSL over NNTP for news security.
--Certification: VeriSign will provide on-line certification via Internet-based enrollment and issuing based on SSL, with four classes of certificates that provide more security at each level. Class 1 certificates will be free for non-commercial use.
--Windows support: OLE 2.0 server support to complement existing OLE 2.0 client support, drag and drop shortcuts and Internet E-mail support for Microsoft's Exchange client.
IDC Analysis
Extending HTML and WWW
Navigator 2.0 represents Netscape's effort to extend HTML beyond text, graphics, images and page layout to being a platform for live objects. It supports three different but complimentary approaches: Frames, Inline Viewers, and Java Applets.
The most straightforward is Frames. This technology allows the Navigator to display multiple independent HTML documents as separate frames within a single overall page. Using this tool, developers can create a more flexible interface including enhanced navigation tools and multiple views of the same information. This facility makes it easier for potential on- line service providers including Netscape's partners (e.g., MCI) and investors to develop their own customized front ends based on standard technology.
Inline viewers enables users and content providers to more tightly link the array of helper applications currently used in conjunction with browsers to deliver audio, video, and 3-D images. With Inline Viewers, the helper applications are embedded within the Navigator Window and can leverage the frames feature discussed above.
Java provides a cross-platform object-oriented extension of C++. Released in alpha form by Sun earlier this year Java is quickly becoming the hottest application development technology on the Web. Based on C++ and agent technology, Java allows programmers to create mini-applications or applets aimed at the myriad of tasks users need accomplished within the Web.
Navigator's implementation will allow Java-based applets to render graphics, interact with users and talk to servers over the network. They can be downloaded from any server and placed on any platform and can be used to retrieve and manipulate Web content. Security is built in based on authorizations and trusted objects. Java-based digital signatures are planned for future releases.
Netscape's scripting language is a subset of Java syntax based on objects and properties. It will be accessed via an embedded script interpreter and can serve functions such as: field validation, event control, HTML on-the-fly (in response to events) and controlling Java applets.
While many vendors are interested in Java, Netscape is the first to incorporate it as part of the HTML framework, giving it a platform and environment for applet functions. Alternatives that were considered includes General Magic's Telescript and Apple's Cyberdog. Java's popularity among other issues won the day for Sun's product.
All of these moves maintain Netscape's tradition of pushing technological innovations in HTML and WWW that go beyond current standards. In earlier cases, these actions won Netscape support in the developer community. Both the frames and Inline Viewer features in 2.0 follow this tradition and with the support of major content providers should quickly come into wide use on the Web. Java represents a much more radical approach and will take longer to achieve general acceptance.
Targeting the Content Developer Community
Determined to be first to the market, Netscape also unveiled plans for Navigator Gold, which will be built of 2.0 and add WYSIWYG hypermedia creation and editing features to Navigator. Editing features include, cut and paste, drag and drop creation of on-line documents. One-button open and publish features will transfer documents to local systems or servers. Visual forms design and support for other Netscape features and extensions will be included.
Livewire will include Navigator Gold and server-based features such as site management, a server extension engine and database connectivity via Livewire Pro. The package will provide link tracking and organizing, as well as wizards and templates for site creation and management. Java will be used as an extension language along with the Java-based Netscape scripting language.
A key aspect of Livewire Pro will be the bundling of single use version of Informix OnLine relational database management system, as well as back end connections to Oracle, Sybase, Informix and MS SQL/Server DBMS. Livewire will run on Netscape servers, which run on NT, Windows 95 and most major Unix platforms.
Navigator Gold will be available in beta in late October and in final form by year's end for $79. Livewire will be priced between $400 and $1,000 in different package and licensing arrangements.
The bundling of editing tools and advanced content management services with enhanced Navigator clients and Netscape servers is a reaffirmation of the company's strategy to win the loyalty of content developers and users rather than the PC software community. By providing content developers with more functions and better management, Netscape is able to maintain a reputation in the user community of being the preferred interface for leading edge content.
Keeping Ahead of the Competition
As outlined in IDC's August bulletin, "Browsers and Beyond: The World Wide Web's Hot Software Market Gets Hotter" (IDC, #10300), Netscape is not alone in recognizing the opportunities that the market for Web development platforms offers within corporations, information service providers and for individuals.
One of the leading contenders from a technology standpoint is America On Line's NaviSoft, AOL's Internet Services Company formed a strategic alliance with Illustra Information Technologies to develop multimedia asset management software for the Internet and World Wide Web. Illustra's object- oriented database technology, which is also being offered by Tandem on its Unix-based servers and PLS in its search technology, supports World Wide Web publishing applications that require the ability to manage complex data and multimedia. Leading applications include: Wall Street trading analysis firms, investment management companies and media firms with large video libraries.
NaviSoft is packaging the technology to provide network navigation, HTML editing and Web servers. The NaviPress visual editor will be available for $99 for Windows, Macintosh and Unix. The NaviServer is priced at $5,000 for Unix and $1,495 for Windows NT.
With more than 200,000 users of the Microsoft Network and a million users of Windows 95, Microsoft has a ready platform with its Internet Explorer browser, available as part of the Microsoft Plus pack for Windows 95 at a price of $50. Development tools are not far behind. In beta testing at 3,000 sites and due for release in early 1996, Blackbird is an interactive development environment aimed at on-line content providers. It will be released in versions to suit the Microsoft Network and the World Wide Web.
Closely tied to the Microsoft Network, Microsoft's Blackbird will integrate browsing with agent-based information retrieval and have ties into MSN's chat sessions, bulletin boards and e-mail. The graphical design environment will come with layout features and an integrated project editor to allow non- programmers to develop sophisticated applications.
The package supports SGML and HTML and is based on OLE component software, which will allow developers and contend providers to customize their applications and tools. Already some third parties have pledged support. Adobe is providing its Photoshop as a plug-in graphics editor. Macromedia is promising viewers and editors for multimedia support of Blackbird.
Blackbird also supports importing and exporting of Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) files and utilizes Microsoft's 3D VR control to display virtual world programs. The product's 32-bit multimedia system takes advantage of Windows 95's multitasking and user interface. It comes in the form of a Designer for building multimedia applications, a Server for hosting applications based on Windows NT, a runtime client for users to run Blackbird applications and Word, an enhanced version of Microsoft Word 6.0 for creating documents.
No pricing or distribution plans have been announced yet. But given the features and platform Microsoft has in its stable, this product will be a force to be reckoned with in early 1996.
Conclusions
All of Netscape' announcements, Navigator 2.0, the new HTML functions, Java, Navigator Gold, and Live Wire represent and effort by the company to maintain its leading-the-market position in technology and content development. Retaining this position is critical to the company.
Given its relatively small size and the immaturity of the market, it does not have the alternative revenue sources of an AOL or Microsoft. If those companies lose momentum, they can reallocate resources and try to leap frog the competition. Netscape does not have the resources or the time to overcome any missteps. It must be seen as constantly setting the path for the market or it will quickly fade from view.
Even with the most rosy sales projections, Netscape will have to maintain its position for several more years before it can have any room for error in product development and delivery.
[Copyright 1995 International Data Corp., International Data Group Inc. All rights reserved.]