I noticed that Fidelity quietly added several new funds into its Spartan family of index funds. Well, I wish they announced and advertised this as visibly as their commission-free iShares ETFs, but since as we all know Fidelity mainly caters to traders this was just my accidental discovery while playing with Fund Evaluator. The new funds close some gaps Fidelity had in their lineup of index funds compared to Vanguard. The expense ratios are almost identical to Vanguard's.
I think addition of new funds is a clear sign that Fidelity must have recognized the growing popularity of index funds and Vanguard's tremendous success. Note that all of these funds (except Global ex-US) have active counterparts that existed for years.
Here's the list of new funds:
"Let every man divide his money into three parts, and invest a third in land, a third in business, and a third let him keep in reserve."
- Talmud
