06 August 2008

S60 version of Skyfire browser is out!
What does it means for Opera Mobile & Opera Mini?

I’m proud that I was among the first to welcome the private beta version of Skyfire browser for Symbian s60 devices nearly two weeks ago. It is the pretty hot and promising product but with one really annoying issue, you can’t actually get it if you’re located in Europe or anywhere lese than North America.

What a pointless and dumb move, need I say more? The most of the Symbian Freaks are upset at this move since the internet is world wide service and limiting one browser to users from certain are only is ridiculous!? I can’t find any reliable reason behind such massive user rejection!?

Well, that's enough of a digression, so let’s back to the main point of this article.

I know it sounds kind of cliché but SkyFire mobile browser is capable to providing you the browsing desktop experience on a tinny mobile screens. The power of the latest Smartphones and its ability to access internet and process complex web pages are undoubtedly impressive, but it is still hardy to believe in desktop like browsing although Skyfire browser is pretty close to that.

It'll be interesting to see how a this browser would stack up to Opera Mobile, to upcoming Firefox mobile port, or to the great Safari based browser which comes preinstalled on the most of currently available S60 devices. What dose it means for the Opera browser which is the most popular 3rd party browser nowadays!?

Java based Opera Mini browser has pretty much dominated alternative browsers in Europe, but Skyfire could destabilize that position. As a direct competitor to Opera Mobile 8.65, which sells for $24, Skyfire's free beta brings a few advantages to the table.

The situation is even worse considering that new version of Opera Mobile (9.5) will not be released anytime soon! What is the reason to push one not so popular mobile platform instead of releasing the product for the world’s leading Smartphone platform with significantly larger market share!?

Pricing isn't the only point of comparison between Opera and Skyfire. Opera wants to bring Symbian owners the "authentic" desktop experience through a rich client and Skyfire will attempt to do so by pulling data from its servers. That makes Skyfire lighter on system resources, but it won't have as many search and linking capabilities out of the gate as Opera Mobile 9.5 beta, which integrated some tricks from the desktop browser. Conversely, Opera's cell phone browsers verge on cluttered, so there's a benefit to Skyfire's pared-down look.

In addition, Skyfire supports Flash and Ajax, two Web technologies common to desktop browsing that have not been available for mass users, though other mobile browsing companies, including Opera, plan to include at least Flash support. So far, Skyfire's choppy video rendering hasn't been as good as other third-party video solutions, such as vTap.

Performance: Skyfire on Symbian

What will early Symbian testers find with Skyfire's Symbian build? Pretty much the same thing they'd find on Windows Mobile phones. In fact, the products share a 0.6 beta version number. Yet, there have been changes since our first reviews. Most notable are the addition of a weather widget on the home screen, which expands into a five-day forecast and more quick links to featured Web sites.

It's a moderately useful feature and, according to Skyfire, there are more widgets coming soon--let's just hope they're all removable. In an interview, a Skyfire representative also addressed video playback and acknowledged the need to keep on trucking.

Perhaps because phone owners are curious about an Opera competitor or because they're excited about a Flash-supporting mobile browser, Skyfire has already gathered more than enough Symbian testers and has closed its initial testing round. Hopefuls will have to wait for a second round of beta testing to begin, but Skyfire is tight-lipped on when that round will open.

The Symbian S60 version will currently work on 10 Nokia S60 phones, including N95 and E71.