Um, maybe I’m deep into it too much, but outside the look and design of the tabs and buttons, can you identify what exactly are the notable new features?

I think having it in browser is the new feature. That makes it operating system agnostic so SB could be used on Apple and Chrome devices. It shifts from reliance on the user’s local installation and querying of databases in the form of SQL files. So if computation is happening server side at SB then the user hardware PC requirements for SB are less (although you would still need a machine capable of doing all the other things you need to do for work).

These changes suggests to me several possibilities:

the cost of developing this new front end was negligible; there is a market for non windows users SB wants to capture; or that SB has a medium term strategy 3-5 years to change the way its product works and transition away from the windows desktop installation.  

To Ian: in my single test I could not load a word document which had been stored in SB for some time. I also did not notice any document automation features such as forms/templates being available. Does SB intend to incorporate these features in the next 6 months or not at this time? Thanks for inviting feedback.