Project Spartan, not Internet Explorer, will be Windows 10 default web browser.
As previously rumored when Windows announced that they were designing a new web browser, Project Spartan will be the default browser for Windows 10 when it is released, according to Mashable.
Over the past five or so years, Windows has taken a devastating hit in market share with Internet Explorer and their web browsing. Everyone with an Apple product is most certainly using Safari, or perhaps maybe even Firefox, while Google Chrome has been the web browser of choice for non-Apple users on their desktops.
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In terms of mobile web browsing, Internet Explorer is basically non-existent. With Safari being the default browser on iPhones and Chrome being the default on Android, no one even bothers with Internet Explorer. The only other browser that are used besides Safari or Chrome on mobile would be Firefox.
To be honest, there really isn’t anything wrong with Internet Explorer 11, it’s actually a pretty decent web browser. The problem is, since the debacle with IE 6 and 7, IE’s brand has taken a huge hit and is now synonymous with being a slow, outdated web browser. Unfortunately, no matter how much Microsoft improves IE, there’s just no way to purge the IE brand of it’s negativity.
It seems like Microsoft has finally come to that conclusion, and that’s where Project Spartan comes in. It’s a chance for Microsoft to bring in a fresh look to the web browsing market and, hopefully, can bring back some of that market share they lost to Safari and Chrome.
Some of the features for the new Spartan web browser include:
- Designated for desktop, tablets and mobile phones.
- Ability to annotate web pages with either a pen or a mouse and keyboard.
- A special reading modifier, similar to Apple’s Reading List.
- Built-in PDF support.
- Cortana support, which is basically Microsoft’s version of Siri.
Web developers have stopped looking at IE as an important compatibility component, meaning that developers only make sure their pages are compatible with IE after they’ve made them compatible with all the other browsers first. This is probably the biggest problem for Microsoft.
If Microsoft can brand Spartan into an important compatibility platform for developers, then this project should be a success for Microsoft and they should be able to regain back some of the market share that IE lost.
H/T to Mashable for the information.
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