Microsoft Is Phasing Out Internet Explorer

The end is finally in sight for Microsoft’s long-fraught Internet Explorer. At the Microsoft Convergence conference yesterday in Atlanta, Georgia, Chris Capossela, Microsoft’s head of marketing, said that the new flagship browser for Windows, which was announced in January and is codenamed Project Spartan, will not be associated with the Internet Explorer brand.

While Internet Explorer will still exist on Windows 10 for compatibility purposes, it will take a back seat to the new browser.

Microsoft has been working for years to salvage the Internet Explorer brand, which languished in the public eye thanks to releases like Internet Explorer 6, widely regarded as one of the worst tech products of all time. Releases over the last few years have fixed the product, but Microsoft has been unable to fix the browser’s reputation, despite a solid ad campaign.

The browser’s user share has suffered in recent years thanks to stiff competition from Google’s Chrome, Mozilla’s Firefox, and Apple’s Safari browsers, and Dean Hachamovitch, the longtime manager of the Internet Explorer team, left the company in December. The announcement that Project Spartan won’t be an Internet Explorer browser is Microsoft’s ultimate admission of failure in its efforts to change Internet Explorer’s image.

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