Browsers are going mainsteam and it spells bad news for the browser vendors and good news for the users. All browers nowadays pretty much look the same, have the same performance and try desperately to distinguish themselves with surrounding features.<p>The basic problem is that the browser is still "trapped in a sandbox", ie they're trying to become the OS but they're still just an application running in a limited context. If all browsers looks the same and perform the same it's going to be real difficult to differentiate yourself from
the competion.<p>It makes sense from big guys point of view. Apple, Microsoft and Google must be present in the browser space to be competitive, especially google whose strategive agenda involves moving application from the OS to the web. For Firefox and Opera things look a bit more bleak IMO.<p>I think browsers will be commoditized to the degree it will be very difficult to compete, it will all come down to brand awareness and surrounding features.<p>My hunch is that Firefox and Opera is dying a slow death and will be irrelevant within 3 years.