Mobile Browser

A Mobile Browser is an web browser which runs on a mobile phone. Mobile Browsers are optimised so as to display internet content most effectively for small screens on portable devices. They accomodate any combination of wcss, xhtml, wap and mhtml. A microbrowser is a web browser designed for use on a handheld device such as a PDA or mobile phone. Microbrowsers have small file sizes to accommodate the low memory capacity and low-bandwidth of wireless handheld devices. Essentially it is a stripped-down web browser. Sometimes it is referred to as mobile browser, micro-browser, mini-browser or minibrowser.

Underlying Technology

The microbrowser usually sets up the cellular networks themselves and gets content written in XHTML Mobile Profile (WAP 2.0), or WML (WAP 1.3 which was based on 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, WML, i-mode HTML, cHTML, plus CSS, ECMAScript, and plug-ins such as Macromedia Flash.

Pioneers

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

Small-Screen Rendering Limitations

As mentioned, not only do microbrowsers need to be small in file size, the display screen is also much smaller. Extreme care and meticulous detail must be considered in displaying HTML information onto such a small screen. Bandwidth is also extremely limited and so is the stability. Connections get cut off as with ordinary cell phones and PDAs that are wirelessly connected.

Popular Microbrowsers

The following are some of the more popular microbrowsers. Some microbrowsers are really miniaturized Web browsers, so some microbrowser companies also provide browsers for the PC.


Default browsers used by major mobile phone vendors
NetFront by Access Co. Ltd. (Japan).
Nokia Series 40 Browser by Nokia.
Nokia Series 60 Browser by Nokia.
Obigo by Obigo AB (Sweden), owned by Teleca Systems AB (formerly AU Systems)
Openwave (Redwood, CA) (formerly Phone.com, formerly Unwired Planet).
Opera by Opera Software ASA (Norway).
Pocket Internet Explorer by Microsoft Inc.

User-installable microbrowsers
Andromeda
Bluelark Bluelark bought by Handspring Inc.
Doris by Anygraaf Oy (Vantaa, Finland)
NicheView by Interniche Technologies Inc.
Minimo by Mozilla Foundation.
Palm™ Web Browser Pro by PalmOne, Inc. (Milpitas, CA)
Picsel by Picsel Technologies Ltd. (Glasgow, Scotland)
Pixo by Sun Microsystems (Pixo acquired by Sun July 2003)
RocketBrowser Rocket Mobile, Inc. (Silicon Valley, CA).
SAS
Skweezer by Greenlight Wireless Corporation
Thunderhawk by Bitstream Inc. (Cambridge, MA)
Wapaka
WebViewer by Reqwireless
Novarra
 

Available Mobile Browsers

There are several browsers for mobile devices available today, ranging from WAP browsers with limited HTML support, for example the Nokia browser, to full-fledged browsers with full support for web standards, for example the Opera.

The following list is a non-comprehensive list of some of the most known mobile browsers.

• Opera browser - From Opera Software (http://www.opera.com)
• Openwave Mobile Browser - From Openwave Systems (http://www.openwave.com)
• Nokia - From Nokia (http://www.nokia.com)
• Picsel - From Picsel Technologies (http://www.picsel.com)
• PocketWeb - From TLogic (http://tlogic.de/home/products.php?p=pocketweb)
• Thunderhawk - From Bitstream (http://www.bitstream.com)
• Netfront - From Access Systems (http://www.access.co.jp)
• Pocket Internet Explorer - From Microsoft (http://www.microsoft.com)
• Minimo - by the Mozilla foundation - Under Development

   

Links

http://www.opera.com/products/mobile/

Compact HTML for Small Information Appliances — W3C NOTE 09-Feb-1998 (http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/NOTE-compactHTML-19980209/)