Microsoft ends 2014 with the launch of “Spartan”
We’ve all seen and laughed at the memes on how slow the ever iconic Internet Explorer has become in comparison with some of the fastest and light browsers like Google Chrome( It has changed how we surf), Firefox, Safari and more. Now, many experts believe that it would have been better for Microsoft to revamp the Internet Explorer experience instead of launching a totally new browser, whereas the geeks of today’s generation and Microsoft fans took a sigh of relief because they are done protecting Internet Explorer and now it is time to give way to “Spartan”.
Microsoft is planning to launch Spartan alongside Internet Explorer 11 which would come out with Windows 10 in the latter part of 2015. It would be interesting to see how Spartan is hyped in the media till the next year and what more changes are incorporated till the launch of this lightweight and fastest browser from Microsoft.
What is Spartan?
Spartan is a lightweight alternative browser to Internet Explorer, but it has been boosted with the foundation for third party extensions and as a marketing make over for Internet Explorer, to continue Internet Explorer’s far feteched legacy. The team at Microsoft suggests that Spartan could eventually launch on alternative operating systems like Android and iOS, just like Bing search can replace the search widget on Android phones and tablets. Technically speaking, Spartan will make use of Microsoft’s Chakra JavaScript and Microsoft’s Trident rendering engine, but what will help Spartan the most is how Microsoft will market the campaign.
If you think that Internet Explorer has become the worst and slowest web browser there ever was, you are dead wrong because the reports say the Internet Explorer is the most widely used web browser in the world with almost 58% users sticking to the iconic web browser, Google Chrome is rising from 16.4 to 20% this year and not much share for Safari and Opera.
Microsoft is looking to improvise and gain some brownie points by their unusual marketing campaigns making fun of their previous browsers. They have even funded a video campaign “The browser you loved to hate” and many more such campaigns. ( Internet Explorer 6 is still the worst ever tech product from Microsoft and even they have accepted the hard hitting truth).
Google Chrome developed and emerged as an alternative to Microsoft’s conservatism in overall quality standards and Google Chrome still stands proudly above Internet Explorer in terms of support for HTML 5 standards. Many people and Microsoft would still argue that Internet Explorer has improved quite a lot from their previous versions, but still techies prefer not to use it and go with the more reliable Firefox or the ever so fast Google Chrome.
It is believed that it would be in the best interest of Microsoft to offer Spartan as a choice in the coming tech previews and once they have the feedback, it would be easy to choose the best browser for later versions.
Again if Spartan lives upto its promises( much has been said and hyped about how fast and reliable Spartan would be) Microsoft can plan to launch Spartan just like Apple launched the OS X, which was a revamp but with great benefits as a foundation for future development. It would be interesting to see how Microsoft handles its new born baby.
Dhruvil is a Writer & Marketeer for Nimblechapps, joined in December 2014, based out of Sydney, Australia. He has worked briefly as a Branding and Digital Marketing Manager before moving to Australia. At Nimblechapps, he worked on Social Media Marketing, Branding, Email Marketing and Blogging. Dhruvil studies Business at University of Western Sydney, and also handles Operations for the company in Australia.