I think you are overestimating the level of understanding a lot of people have. For lots of people, IE == the internet. Start Firefox: "My internet looks different". Same for Outlook vs GMail.
The average office worker (and home computer user?) has eg. Outlook installed and set up by the IT department.
But yes, the analogy with cell phone providers is useful. With this analogy, who would still tie their social media profile to a single provider?
I think you give far too little credit to most Internet users. Even among older users, the vast majority are aware of the difference between a client application and a website.
That was equality, not identity! It's a terminology thing. Yes, they know the difference between the internet and their browser certainly, but I know people who more or less refer to IE as "the internet." It's part of the name, after all. I think they generally call the net itself either "the web" or "online." Obviously I'm pulling from a small data set, but nonetheless, IE does give the impression on the outside that it's the authoritative browser, much as Google's homepage does for search.
I’d argue these are very different, for at least two reasons:
1. This is comparing desktops/laptops to phones. Way more people have phones than computers, and most people that have phones and not computers probably don’t realize or know how they can change the default.
2. This is comparing a browser to a search engine. More people are going to notice they’re using a different browser vs. using a different search engine.
Obviously this is speculation, but it seems like pretty reasonable speculation, particularly the first point.
"...folks tend to prefer homogeneity of their program set across devices."
You must know different folks than I do. Most of the people I know that aren't developers wonder why the icon for "internet" has a big E on it. I can guarantee you that the grand majority of people don't realize that the web browser on their mobile device isn't the same as the web browser on their desktop. And if they do, they're unlikely to be using IE right now anyway.
Additionally (at least for the IE example) there's another huge difference: those who wished to use an IE alternative could do so and continue to engage the same activities and access all the same content--with a few ActiveX exceptions--as they could before.
Most importantly, those who wished to make the switch from IE to Firefox or Chrome or Safari or Opera, etc. could do so without requiring any additional action by others. Again, outside of a few compatibility issues on a few sites, I could change the software I used without convincing webmasters or other users to do anything.
Same went for webmail. I could switch to Yahoo or Gmail or Hotmail or whatever I wanted without requiring me to convince every other relative, friend, and business contact to do the same.
With something like Facebook, you can't just use a different platform to interact with those same people in the same way unless you convince them all to migrate with you. If everyone you know only wants to use Facebook, then that's your option. You can't set up your profile on Diaspora or Google+ or whatever and expect to enjoy all the things you prefer about them because there's no shared protocol like there is with web browsing or email.
I doubt that. You mention in your parent post that people don't know the difference between a browser and a specific site. I think most people do. At least if they use more then 1 site.
Firefox, Safari, and Opera are horrible brands that non-technical people hate.
Um, really? Most of my friends who use Firefox quite like it. Those who use Macs use Safari, for the most part. Basically no one has heard of Opera. But I don't know of a single non-technical user who "hates" any of those brands.
For many people IE == internet
I think you give far too little credit to most Internet users. Even among older users, the vast majority are aware of the difference between a client application and a website.
Its not as simple as that. Most computer users are not educated on the browser options. IE is the standard for internet browsing because it comes with their computer.
A lot of users don't understand the concept of a browser. 'Internet Explorer' is that thing they use to get to their internet. "What the hell is this Morzilla, I want my Internet!"
But yes, the analogy with cell phone providers is useful. With this analogy, who would still tie their social media profile to a single provider?
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