In the last year, Microsoft has committed wholeheartedly to bringing its services and software to as many devices as possible. Through the likes of Word on iPad and the development of Acompli into a new Outlook app for Android, the Microsoft suite has become truly mobile.
As such, it might have been expected that Microsoft Edge, formerly Project Spartan, the killer new browser from Redmond, would make its way to other ecosystems. A story picked up by Neowin, based on a tweet by Michael Gillett, reiterates that this will not be the case, at least in the short-term. The story has been making the rounds focusing on the “Windows only” aspect (which wasn’t a new revelation), but what is notable is how much room for maneuvering is left.
“Right now we’re building Microsoft Edge for Windows 10, we’ll see in the future if it makes sense for other platforms” #BuildTour
— Michael Gillett (@MichaelGillett) May 18, 2015
That Edge will initially be exclusive makes a great deal of sense, at least before the launch of Windows 10. Marketing a stand-out feature as core to your offering, and then making it available everywhere makes little sense. Yet, though there is no version of Edge currently in development for other platforms, that does not mark this as the end.
While Internet Explorer was not marketed to other platforms, that had a great deal to do with the environment in which the browser was created. Microsoft was king, completely dominated in the consumer PC sphere, developing services for a niche OS would have made very little sense.
Edge is born of the new Microsoft, taking risks and trying hard to ensure that it continues to have a place in the software landscape of the next decade. As such, and given that Redmond is keen that the same Microsoft experience is available everywhere, you can expect to hear more on the topic in the future, especially depending on the success of Windows 10.
Nonetheless, news that Microsoft will continue to concentrate on delivering the best integrated experience it can for Windows 10 users, without catering too much to other platforms (at least in some regards) will come as pleasing news for Windows die-hards, many of whom have become somewhat dispirited in recent years.
Would you like to see Microsoft Edge developed for other platforms and devices? Let us know in the comments below.
