Skolkovo resident software developer Startpack is offering desktop users faster access to web applications via its new program, Startpack Launcher.
The IT cluster startup this week unveiled the solution, a window that pops up on demand much like the Windows ‘Start’ button and displays shortcut icons to the user’s most frequently visited cloud-based apps such as Google, Yandex, Facebook, Wikipedia and more.
Existing solutions on the market are offered by some of those very companies – Google Launcher or Yandex Shell - and are limited to the apps they alone produce.
A screenshot from Startup Launcher.
Startpack Launcher has no such limitations and allows those competitors to live happily side by side.
“Today it’s fashionable to unite cloud services into so-called cloud markets,” said Startpack director Alexei Fedorov. “But they all encounter the problem of limited choice and the absence of the services they actually use to hand.”
“Users are always trying out new services, and no cloud market can manage to increase its assortment (of apps) as quickly as the user requires,” he added.
“The users find it convenient to access these services directly from their desktop and toggle between them quickly. Studying these issues led us to create Startpack Launcher, which even at the prototype stage has turned out to be unexpectedly popular among users,” Fedorov said.
Startpack Launcher is released for Windows users, with versions for Mac and Linux coming soon.
Startpack Launcher follows in the footsteps of the company’s recommendation service, which selects cloud products by analyzing user behavior and was launched in February.
The company is a product of the Kazan IT Park, and recently became a resident of the Skolkovo ecosystem.
“Startpack has unique potential,” said Skolkovo’s development and partner director Ivan Kireev. “The guys from Kazan have developed a technological cloud platform that significantly simplifies work with internet cloud services,” he added.
“This solution has every chance of occupying a solid position in their market segment.”