We've been talking off and on lately about how in the Internet world being first to market in any area guarantees absolutely nothing; contrary to how things have worked in the offline world.
Even now a lot of big players in certain sectors are saying that in specific areas they're waiting for things to shake out so that they can then enter in. Why? Because they know that it's very easy to quickly adapt and offer online initiatives. They like it when companies try all sorts of things online to see what works, and then they simply wait until it's figured out and dive in.
The people operating the Opera browser have a hard time getting this. For example, the company's chief technology officer, Hakon Wium Lie, doesn't seem to understand why this is so.
When Information Week talked to him lately, he commented on Microsoft (MSFT) copying them, Lie said: "IE 7 comes out and adds tabbed browsing, but Opera has had that for 10 years...Credit is due Opera, and we'd like to see that reflected in market share."
What's wrong with this is that there is hardly a consumer in the world who cares about who brings something to market first in the online world. As a matter of fact, if they have had tabbed browsing for that long and haven't been able to differentiate themselves with it over that period of time, it shows deep problems in the company - not a failure by consumers to give them their proper due.
We must understand this in our online marketing efforts. Consumers care about themselves; not about you. If we fail to show why people should be using us, then we've failed to earn the right to be used. In this case it seems Opera has fallen into this category.
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