Mobile browser

Web Browser for S60 is an example of a mobile browser.

A mobile browser, also called a microbrowser, minibrowser, or wireless internet browser (WIB), is a web browser designed for use on a mobile device such as a mobile phone or PDA. Mobile browsers are optimized so as to display Web content most effectively for small screens on portable devices. Mobile browser software must be small and efficient to accommodate the low memory capacity and low-bandwidth of wireless handheld devices. Typically they were stripped-down web browsers, but as of 2006 some mobile browsers can handle more recent technologies like CSS 2.1, JavaScript, and Ajax.

Websites designed for access from these browsers are referred to as wireless portals^[1] or collectively as the Mobile Web. They may automatically create "mobile" versions of each page, for example this one.

Underlying technology

The mobile browser usually connects via cellular network, or increasingly via Wireless LAN, using standard HTTP over TCP/IP and displays web pages written in HTML, XHTML Mobile Profile (WAP 2.0), or WML (which evolved from HDML). WML and HDML are stripped-down formats suitable for transmission across limited bandwidth, and wireless data connection called WAP. In Japan, DoCoMo defined the i-mode service based on i-mode HTML, which is an extension of Compact HTML (C-HTML), a simple subset of HTML.

WAP 2.0 specifies XHTML Mobile Profile plus WAP CSS, subsets of the W3C's standard XHTML and CSS with minor mobile extensions.

Newer microbrowsers are full-featured Web browsers capable of HTML, CSS, ECMAScript, as well as mobile technologies such as WML, i-mode HTML, or cHTML.

To accommodate small screens, they use Post-WIMP interfaces.

History

The first mobile browser for a PDA was PocketWeb ^[2][3] for the Apple Newton created at TecO in 1994, followed by the first commercial product NetHopper released in August 1996.^[4]

The so-called microbrowser technologies such as WAP, NTTDocomo's i-mode platform and Openwave's HDML platform fueled the first wave of interest in wireless data services.

The first deployment of a microbrowser on a mobile phone was probably in 1997 when Unwired Planet (later to become Openwave) put their "UP.Browser" on AT&T handsets to give users access to HDML content.^[5][6]

A British company, STNC Ltd., developed a microbrowser (HitchHiker) in 1997 that was intended to present the entire device UI. The demonstration platform for this microbrowser (Webwalker) had 1 MIPS total processing power. This was a single core platform, running the GSM stack on the same processor as the application stack. In 1999 STNC was acquired by Microsoft^[7] and HitchHiker became Microsoft Mobile Explorer 2.0,^[8] not related to the primitive Microsoft Mobile Explorer 1.0. HitchHiker is believed to be the first microbrowser with a unified rendering model, handling HTML and WAP along with ECMAScript, WMLScript, POP3 and IMAP mail in a single client. Although it was not used, it was possible to combine HTML and WAP in the same pages although this would render the pages invalid for any other device. Mobile Explorer 2.0 was available on the Benefon Q, Sony CMD-Z5, CMD-J5, CMD-MZ5, CMD-J6, CMD-Z7, CMD-J7 and CMD-J70. With the addition of a messaging kernel and a driver model, this was powerful enough to be the operating system for certain embedded devices. One such device was the Amstrad e-m@iler and e-m@iler 2. This code formed the basis for MME3.

Released in 2001, Mobile Explorer 3.0 added iMode compatibility (cHTML) plus numerous proprietary schemes.^[9] By imaginatively combining these proprietary schemes with WAP protocols, MME3.0 implemented OTA database synchronisation, push email, push information clients (not unlike a 'Today Screen') and PIM functionality. The cancelled Sony Ericsson CMD-Z700 was to feature heavy integration with MME3.0. Although Mobile Explorer was ahead of its time in the mobile phone space, development was stopped in 2002.

A freeware (although later shareware) browser for the PalmOS was Palmscape, written in 1998 by Kazuho Oku in Japan, who went on to found Ilinx. Still in limited use as late as 2003.

Also in 2002, Palm, Inc. offered Web Pro on Tungsten PDAs based upon a Novarra browser.

Opera Software pioneered with its Small Screen Rendering (SSR) and Medium Screen Rendering (MSR) technology. The Opera web browser is able to reformat regular web pages for optimal fit on small screens and medium-sized (PDA) screens. It was also the first widely available mobile browser to support Ajax and the first mobile browser to pass ACID2 test.[1]

Popular mobile browsers

Distinct from a mobile browser is a web-based emulator, which uses a "Virtual Handset" to display WAP pages on a computer screen, implemented either in Java or as an HTML transcoder.

The following are some of the more popular mobile browsers. Some mobile browsers are really miniaturized Web browsers, so some mobile browser companies also provide browsers for desktop and laptop computers.

Default browsers used by major mobile phone and PDA vendors

Browser	Creator	FOSS	Current layout engine	Software license	Notes
Android browser	Google	Yes	WebKit	Apache 2.0 and GPL v2	-
BlackBerry Browser	Research in Motion	No	Mango (ver 4.5, 4.6, 4.7, 5.0) Webkit (ver 6.0+)	proprietary	-
Blazer	Palm	No	NetFront[10]	proprietary	installed on all newer Palm Treos and PDAs
Firefox for mobile	Mozilla	Yes	Gecko	MPL 1.1 or later, GNU GPL 2.0 or later, GNU LGPL 2.1 or later	Currently released for Android and Nokia Maemo devices
Internet Explorer Mobile	Microsoft	No	Trident	proprietary	on Windows Phone
Iris Browser	Torch Mobile	?	WebKit	proprietary	Acquired by Research in Motion - No longer supports Windows Mobile or Linux
Kindle Basic Web	Amazon.com	No	NetFront	proprietary	-
Myriad Browser	Myriad Group	No	Magellan (ver. 6.X) Fugu (ver 7.X) WebKit (ver 9)[11]	proprietary	Acquired from Openwave in 2008
NetFront	ACCESS Co., Ltd.	No	NetFront	proprietary	-
Nokia Series 40 Browser	Nokia	No	WebKit[12]	proprietary	-
Obigo Browser	Obigo AB	No	WebKit (to be released)	proprietary	100% owned by Teleca AB
Opera Mobile	Opera Software	No	Presto	proprietary	Capable of reading HTML and reformat for small screens, installed on many phones
PlayStation Portable web browser	Sony	No	NetFront	proprietary
Polaris Browser	Infraware Inc.	No	Lumi (Ver. 6.X) WebKit (Ver. 7.X)	proprietary	Nokia, Samsung, LG Electronics, KYOCERA and other Smartphone and cellular phone in USA, China, Korea, etc.
Series 60 web browser	Nokia	?	WebKit	BSD licenses	on Series 60 phones (predominantly Nokia)
Safari	Apple Inc	No	WebKit	proprietary	on iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad
Skyfire Mobile Browser	Skyfire	No	Webkit	proprietary	Renders Flash 10, Ajax and Silverlight content. Currently supports iOS and Android.
uZard Web	Logicplant Co., Ltd.	No	MoRDAC (Mobile oriented Remote Display and Control)	proprietary	on Samsung, LG Electronics and other smartphones and cellular phones in Korea
WebOS Browser	Palm	No	Webkit	proprietary	-
Browser	Creator	FOSS	Current layout engine	Software license	Notes

User-installable microbrowsers

Browser	Creator	Current layout engine	Platforms	Software license	Notes
BOLT browser	Bitstream Inc.	WebKit	Java ME, BlackBerry	Proprietary
Deepfish	Microsoft		Windows Mobile	Proprietary	Proxy-rendering browser (Discontinued)
Dolphin Browser	MoboTap	WebKit	Android
Firefox for mobile	Mozilla Foundation	Gecko	Maemo, Android	MPL/GPL/LGPL
ibisBrowser	ibis inc.		Java enabled phones, Windows Mobile
JOCA	InteracT!V		Java ME		Proxy-rendering free software
Links	Twibright Labs		PlayStation Portable	GPL	Unofficial port, requires custom firmware
Minimo	Mozilla Foundation	Gecko	Linux, Windows CE	MPL/GPL/LGPL	Discontinued
NetFront	ACCESS Co., Ltd.	NetFront, WebKit	Linux, S60, BREW, Android, Windows Mobile, Others	Proprietary
Opera Mini	Opera Software	Presto	Java ME, Android, Windows Mobile, iOS, BlackBerry, S60, Others		Supports most features of stand-alone Opera, but can run on less capable phones by offloading memory-intensive rendering to proxy server (based on Opera Mobile running on a server)
Opera Mobile	Opera Software	Presto	Android, Maemo, BREW, S60, Windows Mobile		supports all modern web standards supported by desktop browsers, including XHTML, CSS2 and Ajax. Has advanced Small Screen Rendering that adapts regular pages to small screen (proprietary)
Pixo	Sun Microsystems
Skweezer
Skyfire	Skyfire Labs, Inc.	WebKit (ver 2.x+), Gecko (ver 1.x)	Android, iOS		Supports Flash and Ajax. As of 2010-12-31, it no longer supports Symbian OS or Windows Mobile
Steel		WebKit	Android		Discontinued
Teashark			Java ME	Proprietary Freeware
Tristit			Java enabled phones, BlackBerry
UC Browser	UC Mobile	U3	S60, Java ME, Android, iOS, Windows Mobile, Bada	Proprietary Freeware	Proxy-rendering
Vision Mobile Browser	Novarra		Java ME, BREW	Proprietary
WinWAP	Winwap Technologies		Windows Mobile	Proprietary
Browser	Creator	Current layout engine	Platforms	Software license	Notes

Mobile HTML transcoders

Mobile transcoders reformat and compress web content for mobile devices and must be used in conjunction with built-in or user-installed microbrowsers. The following are several leading mobile transcoding services.

• Vision Mobile Server
• Skweezer - used by Orange, Etisalat, JumpTap, Medio, Miva, and others
• Teashark
• Opera Mini

See also

• Browser wars
• i-mode
• Information appliance
• Mobile device detection
• Usage share of web browsers
• User agent

References

1. ^ "Wireless portal Definition from PC Magazine Encyclopedia". Pcmag.com. 1994-12-01. http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,2542,t=wireless+portal&i=54781,00.asp. Retrieved 2010-07-29. 
2. ^ Gessler, S., Kotulla, A., "PDAs as mobile WWW browsers." Proc. of Mosaic and the Web Conference, Chicago, October 1994.
3. ^ Markus Lauff, Hans-Werner Gellersen, "Multimedia client implementation on Personal Digital Assistants", Interactive Distributed Multimedia Systems and Telecommunication Services, 1997
4. ^ "NetHopper 2.0 First true web browser for Newton". PenComputing Magazine. 2006. http://www.pencomputing.com/archive/PCM_11/nethopper.html. Retrieved October 13, 2009. 
5. ^ "About Openwave". Openwave. 2009. http://www.openwave.com/us/about_openwave/. Retrieved February 26, 2009. ^{[dead link]}
6. ^ "The Weather Underground brings weather service to mobile phone user". The Weather Underground. 1997. http://www.wunderground.com/about/pr/news.asp?date=19970513. Retrieved February 26, 2009. 
7. ^ "Microsoft Acquires STNC, a Leader in Digital Cellular Software" (Press release). Microsoft. 21 July 1999. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/1999/Jul99/STNCpr.mspx. Retrieved 14 April 2011. 
8. ^ "Microsoft Introduces Microsoft Mobile Explorer" (Press release). Microsoft. 8 December 1999. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/1999/Dec99/MobileExplorerPR.mspx. Retrieved 14 April 2011. 
9. ^ "Microsoft Mobile Explorer 3.0 Provides Tomorrow's WAP 2.0 Functionality Today" (Press release). Microsoft. 19 February 2001. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2001/feb01/02-19mmepr.mspx. Retrieved 14 April 2011. 
10. ^ "palmOne Selects ACCESS NetFront Browser Engine to Power New Blazer 4.0 Mobile Browser, Expand Collaboration". ACCESS Co., Ltd.. 2004-12-08. http://www.access-company.com/news/press/ACCESS/2004/20041208.html. Retrieved 2010-06-13. 
11. ^ "Myriad -Mobile browsers". Myriad Group. 2010. http://www.myriadgroup.com/Device-Manufacturers/Mobile-Browsing.aspx. Retrieved 2010-12-15. 
12. ^ "Series 40 Platform". Forum Nokia. 2010-06-04. http://www.forum.nokia.com/Technology_Topics/Device_Platforms/Series_40/. Retrieved 2010-07-29. 

External links

• W3C Mobile Web Initiative — “The Mobile Web Initiative's goal is to make browsing the Web from mobile devices a reality”, explains Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the Web.
• Compact HTML for Small Information Appliances — W3C NOTE 9 February 1998
• Open Mobile Alliance
• Blackberry Browser Developer site
• Mobile_browser_comparison November 2010 mobile browsers comparison/speed test by Steve Litchfield of Allaboutsymbian.com