Browser wars heat up in the mobile space

[Elimentals]

Ps so do all the crappy flash ads (if that blows your hair back; I'm sure it doesn't in your case )

What ads? I don't see any?

Damn you gotto love adblock

 

[[)roi(]]

What ads? I don't see any?

Damn you gotto love adblock

Hahaha, never see them on Safari too (hope the ad industry stays flash forever )

Thanks to Google Chrome on the Mac, I could uninstall flash permanently as its part of Chrome when I need it

Also use adblock on the Mac (nothing like it sadly on iOS )

 

[murraybiscuit]

this article presents a strange way of looking at things for me.
unlike desktop, you can't run ff or chrome on ios, you can't run safari on droid or wp7, you can't run ie on anything other than wp7, and you can't run anything beside ie on wp7.
trident as usual is an island and webkit derivatives dominate, with a smattering of gecko.
so for me, it's logical that on mobile, browser trends will largely follow os trends. this is mainly because there's a lockout for browsers from competing os vendors.
the only notable exception is opera, which is the most important stat here, as it seems to be the most widely adopted dumbphone 3rd party browser, making it the only variable in this equation.

what i'd like to know is:

1. can opera convert their success from low/mid-tier handsets to top-end handsets?
2. is opera taking any hits from onavo on ios and droid (will the allure of opera's browser compression be replaced by overall connectivity compression, will they introduce a client-level rather than an isp-level apn)?
3. with mobile bandwidth costs dropping and growth shifting from feature phone to smartphone, what can opera do to maintain share?
3. with the lack of dominance of ms in the mobile market and with mozilla's slow entry into the mobile market, their function is different to what it was on desktop. how does mozilla stay relevant? perhaps as a browser neutrality custodian/advocate/arbiter/adviser?

 

[BigAl-sa]

Btw The native browser has always been one of my biggest pet peeves with Android.

I'm actually really enjoying using the stock browser on ICS. The ring menu takes a bit of getting used to, but now that I've figured it out, it's really nice when compared to others I've tried (FF, Opera and Dolphin mini). The Browser + looks interesting.

I haven't tried Chrome yet, as I've gotten tired of the quirkiness of the browsers I have tried and I don't feel like beta testing now.

 

[jammio]

I really find it strange that people still associate so much priority to Flash...

For example: I use Safari as my default browser on the iPhone and Mac; and revert to either Chrome (Mac) or Photon (iPhone) only when I need to see flash. Btw this doesn't in my experience happen very often (once or twice in the last 6 months).

So why would you not choose to use Google Chrome on Android as your primary browser, and only switch to Dolphin or the Stock browser when there is a site limited to flash?

I stand corrected. I guess i misunderstood(and still don't understand) what a lack of flash support actually meant, as this morning I watched several videos in chrome without a problem. Have set chrome as default. Superb browser

 

[[)roi(]]

I stand corrected. I guess i misunderstood(and still don't understand) what a lack of flash support actually meant, as this morning I watched several videos in chrome without a problem. Have set chrome as default. Superb browser

Good luck... Let's us know how it goes.

Btw the reason the videos play is that without flash support the web site will typically serve up h.264 videos. Not always the case; hence you'll still encounter occasions where you have to use another browser.

I would hope now that chrome is following a similar compatibility path to iOS Safari, that Google would fast track youtube's full conversion to h.264.

 

[jammio]

I can already let you know how it's going - just an hour of browsing this morning and I'm very happy. I use chrome on desktop as well and the tab sync feature works brilliantly. Had a few tabs open on desktop, needed to drop a deuce, picked up my phone and continued where i left off

What is with google leaving the "beta" tag on things when they're running like a 3rd version? gmail had beta on it forever as well

 

[[)roi(]]

I can already let you know how it's going - just an hour of browsing this morning and I'm very happy...

Good to know, thanks.

 

[Elimentals]

What is with google leaving the "beta" tag on things when they're running like a 3rd version? gmail had beta on it forever as well

I think that takes from the Linux world. Even if its sable as hell it still not complete as they are planning to add features.

Its like wine that was version 0.x for almost 15 years before hitting version 1. I guess its about certain milestones that needs to be met (Maybe set by project leader) before they can call it a working/stable product.

This also reminds me of a another pattern normally followed in Open source, odd vs even version numbers. Even when most dont follow it I still have a fear of running odd numbered versions in production environment. Example 3.01 or 3.03 not gonna happen but 3.02 and 3.04 is all good. I think this comes from Linux kernel where the reserve the odd numbers for adding features and even for bug fixes or making the code stable.