Microsoft decided that due to their new interoperability initiative, they would reverse a previous decision to make IE8 default to the IE7 engine, instead of supporting standards-compliance by default. No article or musing I have yet read has delved into what is increasingly likely, the reason for this sudden change in decision -- and that is this: the mobile web is coming.
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Member since:2006-12-15
btw. The Safari isn't the only mobile browser worth mentioning, Opera Mini and Opera Mobile shipped on no less than 122 mobile phone models last year. Opera Mini is really interesting since it works on all phones. (For PDA-like phones the more powerfull Opera Mobile is more interesting since it's actually more or less the same engine as desktop Opera.)
Yes, Opera Mini/Mobile are so great that even though it's packaged on 122 mobile phone models, just exactly who is using it? Could it be, nobody likes using the net on a crappy phone?
Meanwhile, "50 times more search requests coming from Apple iPhones than any other mobile handset..."
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/02/14/google_iphone_usage_s...
Maybe we get mobile opera for the iPhone in a few months...
Member since:2007-02-05
I wouldn't be suprised if they release Opera Mobile for it. (I've actually seen a alleged YouTube clip where they ask a Opera-employee and says "Yes" and the clips end right there so there might be a "but...")
(Opera Mini is java-app, so it probably allready runs through one of the unofficial java-ports to iPhone)
The biggest problem with most phone is actually screen size. It's very often to small, and of too small resolution to surf well. Opera Mini(maybe along with Nokia's browser) is probably the only browsers that work well on simple handsets. Compared to other browsers on mobile(with the exception of iPhone) they are quite popular. I think Opera Mini is espescially strong considering how many mobiles it's NOT included on. Most people prefer to use included software on stuff where it is good enough... but each day over 100 000 peple actually bothers to download Opera Mini. And they are using it, Opera Mini was used to view 1.8 billion pages in January. (Source: http://operawatch.com/news/2008/03/opera-mini-monthly-page-views-gr...) Might not sound all that huge, but remember that a lot of these numbers are comming from handset with traditional handset, and not fancy PDA's or iPhone-inspired stuff.
On my HTC TyTn II surfing with Opera Mini works very well. It's not because of it's running Windows Mobile, and although having a pen(or touch screen) play a factor the big things that suddenely makes surfing joyable on a mobile is this: A large, high-resolution screen. This is paramount to a good browsing experience.
Hmm... so the low number of mobile surfers is largeley due to screen. (And mobile internet prices of course.)
Member since:
2007-02-05
Really interesting article. Never thought of it that way. It's a really good point though, I've used a couple of mobile browsers(Safari, Opera Mini, Opera Mobile) and anything that's standard-compliant and doesen't rely heavily on JS or Flash usually works like a charm. So... my experiences fit your theory. Thanks for a good article.
(If OSnews sent my mobile browser a far more the desktop version of the site, or at least the a link to that one on the mobile version I'd probably read OSnews as much on my mobile as I do on my PC. I allready do that with several other newssites.)
btw. The Safari isn't the only mobile browser worth mentioning, Opera Mini and Opera Mobile shipped on no less than 122 mobile phone models last year. Opera Mini is really interesting since it works on all phones. (For PDA-like phones the more powerfull Opera Mobile is more interesting since it's actually more or less the same engine as desktop Opera.)
I've actually managed to get hold of a leaked Opera Mobile 0.50 Pre-Alpha. Of course not very stable, but show som really interesting stuff. Looking forward to when it's released. (Please excuse my obvius Opera-fanboyism, I mean no harm!)