Friday, September 3, 2010


Window Mobile Needs some Browser Love!

Articles Written by: Darren Humphries on Tuesday, June 30, 2009 9:00am

Its already been said many times but it bears repeating over and over until it happens. Windows Mobile needs a marquee browser!!

One of the most significant parts of the iPhone experience is the Safari browser. It is truly a very well down browser, based on the WebKit engine. While it lacks flash it renders pages quickly and accurately. With multitouch, zooming in and out is easy and almost fun. The only thing Mobile Safari doesn’t do well (other than that flash thingy I mentioned) is text reflowing; in other words automatically having the text on a page fit the screen based on it’s zoom level.

Actually, the just announced HTC Hero running the Android OS also has a WebKit based browser but it does what the iPhone doesn’t. HTC has made some wonderful modifications and the Hero’s browser will have both flash support and text reflow. But, like Mike I still have a hard time liking that “chin” on HTC’s Android devices. Lose it already! It isn’t a distinctive feature that adds…anything good to the phone!

Sorry, lost my head there.

It seems that, just like on the desktop Microsoft has a hard time making good browsers for Windows Mobile. One of the nice things about WinMo is that you can add browsers on the device and pick one you like. The bad part is that you have to bother doing this. There are going to be many casual users that take their Windows Mobile device out of the box and add little or no additional programs, including a new browser. They are left assuming that Windows Mobile just can’t do what the iPhone can.

BTW, let me just say it here; I think a great browser should be solely Microsoft’s responsibility. I hope they aren’t waiting for someone to get it right, cause that just hasn’t happened yet and it may not.

The Others:
There are actually some nice choices in mobile browsers on the market; Skyfire, Opera Mobile…ummm… Well, there are some other choices such as the NetFront Browser (surprisingly good), the Iris Browser (Webkit based but needs a ton of work) and the ever illusive Fennec browser, which isn’t actually usuable yet but may one day. Lots of choices, but no one browser does it all quite right.

My own feeling is that Microsoft should bite the bullet and use a WebKit browser, at least until they have a good one to offer.

What makes a good browser?
Faster rendering, even if it is a desktop based page that hasn’t been optimized for a smartphone.
Text reflow based on the area you double tap on (ignore that grammatical error: I am)
Flash support: its just not an option to leave it out.
Tabbed browsing!!! I understand memory becomes an issue with multiple tabs, but heck, limit the number of tabs…just not to one.
Faster rendering. I know, I know, but it needs to be fast!

Microsoft has Windows Mobile 6.5 coming out on devices soon which will help the UI become more finger friendly but if the browser isn’t significantly better than it is now, its a bit of a waste. If Microsoft had a browser that brings it at the very least on par with the iPhone or, better yet, with the HTC Hero, they will turn a LOT more heads their way.

Come on Microsoft, lets have a GREAT browsing experience: roll out a new mobile browser that shows off the years of experience that should be putting you ahead in this area!

Comments (7)
\ \ \


Comments

7 Responses to “Window Mobile Needs some Browser Love!”

  1. Remo Knops on June 30th, 2009 3:51 pm
    Remo Knops

    I love the “lost my head here” part of the article !! :o )

  2. Mike Temporale on July 2nd, 2009 9:35 pm
    Mike Temporale

    I’ve had my fair share of issues with IE Mobile, but I have to be honest, it works really well, especially on Standard phones. Is it perfect? heck no! But it does have a very good One Column view that helps to view pages on a small screen.

    Yes it’s slow. Yes it doesn’t support many of todays standards. Yes it’s limited in almost every way.

    I have played with the new IE Mobile in 6.5 and it does do a much better job of loading the desktop version of the web page on a mobile screen, but I really don’t want to see the desktop version. Trim it down, show me everything in a single column.

    I would like better, but don’t lose what good is already there.

  3. Darren Humphries on July 2nd, 2009 11:16 pm
    Darren Humphries

    Mike, how can you say Mobile IE really works well and “Yes it’s slow. Yes it doesn’t support many of todays standards. Yes it’s limited in almost every way.” in the same comment?

    Mobile IE is just not up to par with Mobile Safari or the Android browser. On WinMo Skyfire and Opera Mobile are much better than Mobile IE but still not good enough.

    You need to spend some time with Mobile Safari to see what I mean.

    I am hoping that Mobile IE in 6.5 is a lot better but I dont think we’ll see significant changes until WM7. I am truly hoping Microsoft proves me wrong.

  4. Mike Temporale on July 3rd, 2009 9:07 am
    Mike Temporale

    I knew I was going to get into trouble for that comment… ;-)

    You see, on Standard devices IE Mobile has a really good feature and it actually works pretty well too. In One Column view, it will try and re-flow the columns on the page so that you don’t have to scroll from side to side. On web sites that don’t support mobile browsers, it works nicely to format the content to be readable on the device.

    When using Safari, the page is displayed in desktop format which means way to much zoom out, scroll, zoom in, scroll left/right while reading, etc… it’s just not natural for me.

    I’m all for better browsers, but I don’t want a desktop engine on my mobile device. It needs to be mobile-smart.

  5. Darren Humphries on July 3rd, 2009 9:21 am
    Darren Humphries

    Its a good point and actually HTC recognized that with the Hero. They made the browser so that it will reflow text to whatever zoom level you have. So, you end up with best of both worlds; full page view, but easy reading when needed.

    Opera Mobile on WinMo is very close to being great, it just needs to have flash support. It will allow for desktop viewing or one column. It renders exceptionally quickly and has tabs.

    I’m not saying Mobile IE is a dog – I still use it sometimes – but it should be a marquee browser and it isn’t. I’m hoping for “great” not “good enough”.

  6. Shawn Roberts on July 8th, 2009 8:44 pm
    Shawn Roberts

    It sounds like HTTP 5 may obviate the need for flash. The concept of flash on a mobile browser sounds good, but it seems like in practice it is a headache that is unncessary.

  7. TG on July 14th, 2009 8:34 am
    TG

    Thank you Mike Temporale !!! Everybody constantly bashes IE on Win Mobile , calling it crap, but I stopped using Opera ( and I can’t use Safari on my iPod Touch ) for the very reason you mention. I don’t want to constantly zoom in and out and scroll left and right. The IE page reflow is the best, my device (Xperia ) has a keyboard and touch pad so I don’t need it to be thumb friendly so I actually use IE for mobile browsing , believe it or not !!

Leave a Reply




Additional comments powered by BackType