Classification of Mobile Browsers

admin — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 03:00:48 +0000

Today, I am not going to post some CSS3 tricks on Webkit, or stuff like that. Instead, I post a list mobile browsers, since I am often asked about mobile / WAP browsers by engineers, product managers, and mobile-curious or mobile-newbie people.

I gathered 30+ major browsers I have worked with (plus a few I have never even seen), and categorize by the markup that browsers can render – WML, CHTML, XHTML-MP, and HTML4.

So, here you go. If you find some mistakes, let me know!

WML Browsers (WAP 1.x)
Openwave earliy browsers 4.x
Early Nokia browser
Early Obigo browser

CHTML Browsers (Common in Japan)
CHTML browsers	Compact-HTML browsers
CHTML browsers	Compact NetFront
i-mode browsers (CHTML / XHTML)	NTT Docomo

XHTML Browsers (WAP 2.x – XHTML-MP / WML)
WebKit	Nokia S40
WebKit	Nokia S60 – earlier versions, or “Services” browser
NetFront by Access	Palm Blazer 3.x -
NetFront by Access	Sony Ericsson WAP browser
Blazer by Handspring	original browsers before accured by Palm
Openwave 6.x	Siemens
	Sharp
	Sanyo
	Motorola
	Toshiba
Blackberry by RIM	Blackberry browser- earlier version ~4.3? (*)
Obigo by Teleca
Polaris by InfraWare
Helio
Motorola MIB

HTML Browsers
WebKit	Nokia S60 3rd gen., “Web” Mini-map browser
	Apple Mobile Safari
	Google Android
	Palm WebOS
	Iris, by Torch Mobile (now RIM)
	Bitstream Bolt (Proxy)
	MOTOMAGX (Motorola Linux devices)
Gecko	Mozilla Minimo (dead?)
	Mozilla Fennec
	Maemo (aka MicroB)
	Skyfire
Opera (proxy)	Opera Mobile
	Opera Mini
	Nintendo DSi
	Nintendo Wii
Blackberry by RIM	Blackberry browser ver.4.6+ (I am not sure about 4.4 and 4.5)
Microsoft Internet Explorer (was Microsoft Pocket IE)	(earlier versions do not support CSS?)
NetFront 3.x ?	Sony Ericsson browsers
	Sony PlayStation / PSP browsers
	Palm Blazer 4.x
	Amazon Kindle
Teleca	Teleca Browser V3.x ? (LG Voyager)
Danger (now by Microsoft)	Sidekick

I have categorized only with the markup type, and did not sub-categorize these browsers. However, if I would, I may want to grade XHTML-MP devices with page memory size (=”deck size”, yes I said deck size), and screen resolution for UI design purpose.

To grade full-HTML browsers, you need to spend massive time and effort on testing rendering capability with CSS, and Javascript DOM compatibility, events, etc. Actually, PPK has done excellent work on mobile browser testing, so you can simply visit Quirksmode.org!

Tried Fennec Milestone Release for Windows Mobile

admin — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 23:18:26 +0000

Last week, Mozilla has released the early version of Firefox Mobile, “Fennec” for Windows Mobile (pre-alpha).
Just like the earlier release was only for VGA Nokia devices like N800, this WinMo-release targets only one device, HTC Touch Pro.

Unfortunately I could not borrow an actual HTC “Fuze” (AT&T version of Touch Pro), so I tested via DeviceAnywhere service.

Just typed in the Mozilla’s ftp address directly on PIE (I have no reasons why I didn’t use the default Opera Mobile), downloading and installing was fine (Pic.1).
I got a pretty Fennec icon on screen. Nice. But I hope Mozilla will make it less jaggy for the next release. (Pic.2)
Clicked the icon and wait, wait, wait… pretty slow. When I almost lost my patience, the browser finally launched… its title bar. Let’s wait for more. -nothing happened.
Quit and relaunched. – the same result.
Re-installed. – the same result. (Pic.3)

Pic.1 – Installing Fennec	Pic.2 – Fennec icon
Pic.3 – WTF

Conclusion: Somebody please help me. I can’t make it work!!!

Links:

Download URL: http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/mobile/fennec-0.11.en-US.wince-arm.cab
Mozilla FTP Index for mobile
Brad’s Blog – Fennec Milestone Release for Windows Mobile

GirlieMac! Blog » WinMo

Classification of Mobile Browsers

Tried Fennec Milestone Release for Windows Mobile