- Mobile device detection
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Mobile Device Detection (or 'Device Detection') refers to software that identifies the type of mobile device visiting a web site and either redirects the end user to a dedicated mobile web site or adapts the format of the web site to suit the end user’s device.
Contents
Background
Most desktop web browsers use HTML and display a relatively consistent web page regardless of the browser type or computer manufacturer.
However, mobile browsers may use HTML, WML (WAP) or a number of other markup languages. In addition, there is a much wider diversity in screen sizes, browser types and operating systems than with desktop computers.
As a result, a web site solely designed for the larger screen of a desktop computer is often unlikely to appear correctly or legibly when viewed on the smaller display of a mobile phone.[1]
Solution
Any internet-connected device that ‘requests’ a web page via its browser will identify itself with a User agent code. Determining the type of browser or device from the User Agent offers a web developer the opportunity to encode a web page so that it behaves appropriately for each web visitor.
Mobile Device Detection combines a list of User Agent data – sometimes referred to as a Device Description Repository (DDR) – with a software solution (API) to access the User Agent list.
Device Detection providers
- DetectMobileBrowsers.mobi
- DetectRight
- DeviceAtlas
- 51Degrees.mobi
- OpenDDR
- ScientiaMobile
- WURFL
- Apache Mobile Filter
References
Categories:
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.