Netscape charts new directions for Navigator

Netscape has delineated its cross-platform advantage over Microsoft in Web browsers with the announcement that it will produce native versions of Navigator for OS/2 Warp and Apple's Cyberdog suite of Internet tools for the Macintosh.

The Mac product will support the Apple-backed object component architecture, OpenDoc. In return, Apple will make Navigator the standard browser for Cyberdog users and bundle it with the Mac OS. Netscape claims that Navigator supports more than 15 platforms.

Netscape also announced that it will spin off a division, called Navio, dedicated to creating versions of Navigator for non-PC devices such as handheld organisers, game systems and Network Computers.

The firm was boosted the other day with the news that Corel plans to bundle Navigator with Office Professional 7 and its remote communications software, CorelVideo Remote.

PCDN Comment: Even if Microsoft could get every Windows user on the planet to use Explorer, Netscape would remain a viable company because of its huge base of Macintosh, Unix and other users. With a version of Explorer for Macintosh not due until the end of the year (the beta should be available by the end of September), it makes sense for Netscape to make Navigator a broadly multi-platform product.