And just as Ma Bell was in the midst of each phone call, so browser makers' brands are front and center in every experience on the Web. First, the PC will clearly no longer be the center of the technology universe. While today PCs make up 80 percent or 90 percent of Internet communications, the growth of wireless and pervasive products will reduce the number to less than 40 percent very quickly. Europe, Asia and to some extent Latin America have already moved heavily in that direction. And, if you are offline, still allows you to access and manipulate the data.
Most people think of the Internet and the Web as being the same thing.
The Internet is the underlying communications network and the web is an application for retrieving pages and hyperlinking. There will be more and more applications that use the Internet and don't require a browser. Instant-messaging applications are a good example. We will see many applications being developed which look and feel like the native desktop but which utilize the Internet seamlessly in the background. They will operate offline and then update things the next time you connect.