"... That means Google is slowly but surely working to erode Microsoft's monopoly. If browsers provide a high-quality, universally popular, OS-independent platform for applications, OS vendors no longer have any particular advantage in the desktop applications market. ..."
On the assumption that most users use this browser.
More browsers, more market split. The question nobody has answered is how is this new Chrome browser going to get on computers? Downloaded by users? Mandated by companies? or shipped on new operating systems?
As we saw with the example of search engines, a new competitor may split an existing market, only to have it later converge on his product, because he made something people liked. If they manage to do that, it might just get downloaded by users, mandated by companies, and shipped with Linux desktops as the default interface. It's made by Google, and the idea has been around for a decade, so I take it as not impossible that it could be that good.
"... As we saw with the example of search engines, a new competitor may split an existing market ..."
This is a different beast.
It's consumer binary software. You have to download it, install it, tune it, learn it. The browser is now what the OS was to applications. It's just another hurdle for constrained users to jump. With search engines you just point your browser with a different url.
On the assumption that most users use this browser.
More browsers, more market split. The question nobody has answered is how is this new Chrome browser going to get on computers? Downloaded by users? Mandated by companies? or shipped on new operating systems?