I'll try to answer not only as loyal user but as marketing man too.
First, the user point of view goes:
- I see, every community man loves KM in his own way :-) So, we can conclude that KM is really PERSONAL browser.
- It can give you what you want if you CAN WANT, can think, ask, answer etc. Thereby its COMMUNICATIVE browser.
- I cannot exactly tell why, but I'm really dependent of K-Meleon. It's a kind of magic (c)
but may be it follows from its FRIENDLINESS in terms of smooth browsing
even on older and weaker hardware.
- The really important point is that I can't find browser lying more closely to 'ideal' around. All the competitors - IE, FF, Opera and Chrome - have their own big and annoying limitations. So, KM is the most BALANCED browser when it comes to pro and contras.
Now the marketing side.
Speaking technically, the uniqueness of KM lies in the conjunction of all features that are differentiating it: Gecko + native Win interface + KMM + finetuning with simple general operations (text file editing, file adding/deleting in folders...).
I think, main ones are Gecko and KMM. Why? It's simple: Gecko is practically the last FREE, OPEN SOURCE engine. Trident&Presto are proprietary and WebKit now is highly connected (de-facto) with such monsters as Google and Apple.
And KMM is really unique part of KM browser.
Fine controlling is optional for average user (dummy) and makes sense only for advanced users, so we have to keep it but not need to put it the first point when promoting KM and offering it to new users.
And what about GUI - yes, now it's the key point, but what I think (not being a coder, so I could be wrong - correct me if so): it seems to me that it can be made like core and GUI parts where core consists all functional and is wrapped (with some needed tuning) in different GUIs (for example: MFC, Qt, GTK, wxWidgets etc.) and this can lead KM to Linux OSes, for example.
It's not the crucial point of development but just one more opportunity to popularize KM among those people who can fully assess all the power of our lizard :-)
Paradox is that being only Windows software, KM behaves more in linux way of controlling and managing the application. So, to cover linuxoids is one of logical steps. But not critical one.
And now - the most important - marketing look from the consumer's side:
I believe, and more - I know, that we must think about KM not only as developers but as average potential user do.
This is the simple logical chain: more friendly, more familiar, more closer would KM be to end user - more popular would it become - more people would be involved in the KM orbit - more chances that it would be interesting for coders too - more possibilities to develop - better future for browser.
And thinking this way I can guess that we can position KM primarily as LIGHT browser.
"Light" is very rich-of-senses word, and people generally like 'light' things.
Things that make their life 'lighter', easier, clearer, simpler.
KM is - first - light on resources. It's very technical thing but that one what every user can estimate and feel every day working with browser (we know, for many people nowadays browser is the main working tool or just window to the whole world!). And we (taking us as users) feel this lightness really every day, hour and every time.
KM is really light (not-difficult) in basic use being the same time more powerful than many competitors. Real pain for non-advanced users begins only when it comes to some 'extra-functional' and - more crucial - to personalizing the browser.
This are areas of high-priority work - because now they contradict to the LIGHT definition.
Why I concentrate on this one word? You know - it's just marketing (being more precise - branding) where you must take the position in consumer's mind. And more simpler, lighter, clearer is the verbal formula for this position - more chances are to win this race.
P.S. Sorry for so many letters, folks!
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/20/2012 09:39AM by rodocop.