Microsoft Rumors: New Browser on Anvil, IE May be Laid to Rest

In a bid to level off with Google and Mozilla's hugely popular browsers, Microsoft is said to be working on a new browser codenamed Spartan.

A USA Today report suggests that the new browser would not serve as an upgrade to Internet Explorer but would be a new browser unlike IE but similar to Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome, which along with Apple's Safari are more popular than Microsoft's browser. The windows-bundled Internet Explorer 11 was the latest in the offering.

According to Mary Jo Foley, who broke the news on ZD Net, the new browser would have improved support for extensions like Firefox and Chrome. It would also look and feel the like the popular browsers. However Microsoft does not plan to abandon the Chakra JavaScript engine and Microsoft Trident rendering engine used for IE. Both Google and Apple use Webkit, which in turn drives most web developers to optimize their web pages for Webkit.

Microsoft will debut its new browser with Windows 10, a glimpse of which is expected on January 21 next year. To begin with, Spartan would be offered alongside IE which Microsoft may bundle for backward compatibility.

Business Insider reported that Spartan could function on all devices running Windows 10. However it is not known if Microsoft would make its new browser available on other platforms as stores like Apple's App Store requires applications browse the web with its WebKit. That said, given Microsoft's keenness to make its products cross-platform, Spartan could become available on Android and iOS.