mobile browser

The mobile browser usually connects via the cellular network, or increasingly via Wireless LAN, using standard HTTP over TCP/IP and displays web pages written in HTML. Historically, early feature phones were restricted to only displaying pages specifically designed for mobile use, written in XHTML Mobile Profile (WAP 2.0), or WML (which evolved from 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.

Smartphone mobile browsers are full-featured Web browsers capable of HTML, CSS, ECMAScript, as well as mobile technologies such as WML, i-mode HTML, or cHTML.

To accommodate small screens, they use Post-WIMP interfaces.

The first mobile browser for a PDA was PocketWeb{{Cite journal |doi = 10.1016/0169-7552(95)00093-6|title = PDAs as mobile WWW browsers|year = 1995|last1 = Gessler|first1 = Stefan|last2 = Kotulla|first2 = Andreas|journal = Computer Networks and Isdn Systems|volume = 28|issue = 1–2|pages = 53–59}}{{Cite book |doi = 10.1007/BFb0000360|chapter = Multimedia client implementation on Personal Digital Assistants|title = Interactive Distributed Multimedia Systems and Telecommunication Services|volume = 1309|pages = 283–295|series = Lecture Notes in Computer Science|year = 1997|last1 = Lauff|first1 = Markus|last2 = Gellersen|first2 = Hans-Werner|isbn = 978-3-540-63519-2|citeseerx = 10.1.1.6.6059}} for the Apple Newton created at TecO in 1994, followed by the first commercial product NetHopper released in August 1996.{{cite web |date=July 1996 |title=NetHopper 2.0: First true web browser for Newton |url=http://www.pencomputing.com/archive/PCM_11/nethopper.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110611122918/http://www.pencomputing.com/archive/PCM_11/nethopper.html |archive-date=June 11, 2011 |access-date=October 13, 2009 |publisher=Pen Computing Magazine}}

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

The first deployment of a mobile browser on a mobile phone was probably in 1997 when Unwired Planet (later to become Openwave) put their "UP.Browser" on AT&T handsets to give users access to HDML content.{{cite web |year=2009 |title=About Us |url=http://owmobility.com/about-us |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160315055353/http://owmobility.com/about-us |archive-date=March 15, 2016 |access-date=June 8, 2016 |publisher=Openwave Mobility}}{{cite web |year=1997 |title=The Weather Underground brings weather service to mobile phone user |url=http://www.wunderground.com/about/pr/news.asp?date=19970513 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090606185810/http://www.wunderground.com/about/pr/news.asp?date=19970513 |archive-date=June 6, 2009 |access-date=February 26, 2009 |publisher=The Weather Underground}}

A British company, STNC Ltd., developed a mobile browser (HitchHiker) in 1997 that was intended to present the entire device UI. The demonstration platform for this mobile browser (Webwalker) had 1 MIPS total processing power. This was a single core platform, running the GSM stack on the same processor as the application stack. In 1999 STNC was acquired by Microsoft{{cite press release|url=https://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/1999/Jul99/STNCpr.mspx |title=Microsoft Acquires STNC, a Leader in Digital Cellular Software |publisher=Microsoft |date=21 July 1999 |access-date=14 April 2011 |url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110513182941/http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/1999/Jul99/STNCpr.mspx |archive-date=13 May 2011 }} and HitchHiker became Microsoft Mobile Explorer 2.0,{{cite press release|url=https://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/1999/Dec99/MobileExplorerPR.mspx |title=Microsoft Introduces Microsoft Mobile Explorer |publisher=Microsoft |date=8 December 1999 |access-date=14 April 2011 |url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101114001316/http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/1999/Dec99/MobileExplorerPR.mspx |archive-date=14 November 2010 }} not related to the primitive Microsoft Mobile Explorer 1.0. HitchHiker is believed to be the first mobile browser with a unified rendering model, handling HTML and WAP along with ECMAScript, WMLScript, POP3 and IMAP mail in a single client. Although it was not used, it was possible to combine HTML and WAP in the same pages although this would render the pages invalid for any other device. Mobile Explorer 2.0 was available on the Benefon Q, Sony CMD-Z5, CMD-J5, CMD-MZ5, CMD-J6, CMD-Z7, CMD-J7 and CMD-J70. With the addition of a messaging kernel and a driver model, this was powerful enough to be the operating system for certain embedded devices. One such device was the Amstrad e-m@iler{{cite web |date=5 October 2002 |title=The previous e-m@iler... |url=http://www.amstrad.com/emailer.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060209150511/http://www.amstrad.com/emailer.html |archive-date=9 February 2006 |website=Amstrad}} and e-m@iler 2. This code formed the basis for MME3.

Multiple companies offered browsers for the Palm OS platform. The first HTML browser for Palm OS 1.0 was HandWeb by Smartcode software, released in 1997. HandWeb included its own TCP/IP stack, and Smartcode was acquired by Palm in 1999. Mobile browsers for the Palm OS platform multiplied after the release of Palm OS 2.0, which included a TCP/IP stack. A freeware (although later shareware) browser for the Palm OS was Palmscape, written in 1998 by Kazuho Oku in Japan, who went on to found Ilinx. It was still in limited use as late as 2003. Qualcomm also developed the Eudora Web browser, and launched it with the Palm OS based QCP smartphone. ProxiWeb{{cite web|url=https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/~iang/pubs/wingman.pdf|title=Experience With Top Gun Wingman: A Proxy-Based Graphical Web Browser for the 3Com PalmPilot|website=uwaterloo.ca|access-date=4 May 2018}} was a proxy-based Web browsing solution, developed by Ian Goldberg and others{{cite web |title=About Top Gun Wingman |url=http://daedalus.cs.berkeley.edu/software/wingman/index.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180505135328/http://daedalus.cs.berkeley.edu/software/wingman/index.html |archive-date=May 5, 2018 |access-date=4 May 2018 |website=The University of California, Berkeley BARWAN Research Project CDROM}} at the University of California, Berkeley and later acquired by PumaTech.

Released in 2001, Mobile Explorer 3.0 added iMode compatibility (cHTML) plus numerous proprietary schemes.{{cite press release|url=https://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2001/feb01/02-19mmepr.mspx |title=Microsoft Mobile Explorer 3.0 Provides Tomorrow's WAP 2.0 Functionality Today |publisher=Microsoft |date=19 February 2001 |access-date=14 April 2011 |url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110401232319/http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2001/feb01/02-19mmepr.mspx |archive-date=1 April 2011 }} By imaginatively combining these proprietary schemes with WAP protocols, MME3.0 implemented OTA database synchronisation, push email, push information clients (not unlike a 'Today Screen') and PIM functionality. The cancelled Sony Ericsson CMD-Z700 was to feature heavy integration with MME3.0. Although Mobile Explorer was ahead of its time in the mobile phone space, development was stopped in 2002.

Also in 2002, Palm, Inc. offered Web Pro on Tungsten PDAs based upon a Novarra browser. PalmSource offered a competing Web browser based on Access NetFront.

Opera software pioneered with its Small Screen Rendering and Medium Screen Rendering technology. The Opera web browser is able to reformat regular web pages for optimal fit on small screens and medium-sized (PDA) screens. It was also the first widely available mobile browser to support Ajax and the first mobile browser to pass the Acid2 test.

Distinct from a mobile browser is a web-based emulator, which uses a "Virtual Handset" to display WAP pages on a computer screen, implemented either in Java or as an HTML transcoder.

The following are some of the more popular mobile browsers. Some mobile browsers are really miniaturized web browsers, so some mobile device providers also provide browsers for desktop and laptop computers.

Mobile transcoders reformat and compress web content for mobile devices and must be used in conjunction with built-in or user-installed mobile browsers. The following are several leading mobile transcoding services.

• Openwave Web Adapter - used by Vodacom
• Vision Mobile Server
• Skweezer - used by Orange, Etisalat, JumpTap, Medio, Miva, and others
• Opera Mini

• Google Mobilizer (Google Web Transcoder){{cite web|url=https://www.google.com/gwt/n|title=Google Mobilizer|website=google.com|access-date=4 May 2018}} — Defunct since February 2016.{{cite web |last=Solomon |first=Veena |title=What happened to Web Transcoder? |work=Mobile Websites | Webmaster Central Help Forum | Google Product Forums |date=2016-02-06 |url= https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/webmasters/t8WmPTpYw6A |access-date=2018-03-30}}{{cite news |last=Schwartz |first=Barry |title=Google Web Transcoder Killed Off? |publisher=Search Engine Roundtable |date=2016-02-15 |url=https://www.seroundtable.com/google-web-transcoder-offline-21629.html |access-date=2018-03-31}} Replaced with Google Web Light.
• Smartphone site — The last extant snapshot of the site is from 5 September 2012.
• Device-Browser combinations on Cloud
• Finch{{cite news |last=Purdy |first=Kevin |title=Finch Formats Web Sites for Really Slow Connections |publisher=Lifehacker |date=2008-10-13 |url= https://lifehacker.com/5062671/finch-formats-web-sites-for-really-slow-connections |access-date=2013-03-30}} — The last snapshot of a functional Finch site is from 28 February 2009.{{cite web |last=Brenecki |first=Adam |title=Finch. |year=2009 |url=http://finch.ploogy.net |url-status = dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090228194010/http://finch.ploogy.net/ |archive-date=2009-02-28}} This defunct service should not be confused with Finch (software). Finch the transcoder became Squeezr!Beta as early as 8 December 2009.
• {{cite web |last=Brenecki |first=Adam |title=squeezr!beta |year=2009 |url=http://squeezr.net |url-status = dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20091208234659/http://squeezr.net/ |archive-date=2009-12-08}}
• {{cite web |last=Brenecki |first=Adam |title=Finch is now... squeezr!beta |year=2010 |url=http://finch.ploogy.net |url-status = dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100613141116/http://finch.ploogy.net/ |archive-date=2010-06-13}}
• Squeezr!Beta — The last functional Squeezr!Beta page is dated 13 February 2010.{{cite web |last=Brenecki |first=Adam |title=squeezr!beta |publisher=squeezr.net |year=2010 |url=http://squeezr.net |url-status = dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100213160249/http://squeezr.net/ |archive-date=2010-02-13}} As of 28 August 2010, Squeezr!Beta had closed;{{cite web |last=Brenecki |first=Adam |title=squeezr!beta is closed :( |publisher=squeezr.net |year=2010 |url=http://squeezr.net |url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100828124900/http://squeezr.net/ |archive-date=2010-08-28}} the last page of Squeezr as authored by Adam Brenecki is dated 2 January 2012.{{cite web |last=Brenecki |first=Adam |title=squeezr!beta is closed :( |publisher=squeezr.net |url=http://squeezr.net |url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120102143147/http://squeezr.net/ |archive-date=2012-01-02}} Since 2013, squeezr.net redirected to squeezr.it, which is a different service, and not related to Adam Brenecki.
• Microsoft Bing{{cite web|url=http://m.bing.com|title=Bing|website=m.bing.com|access-date=4 May 2018|df=dmy-all}} — the option to enable or disable "Optimize web pages for your phone" in "Search settings" is not visible in Bing's mobile version as of March 2018. (The mobile version can be accessed with a phone or tablet, or when setting a web browser to identify itself with a mobile-based user agent string.)
• MobileLeap Transcoding Engine, by MobileLeap Inc. As of March 2018, web page source code includes JavaScript from the domain parking company Sedo)mlvb.net{{Dead link|date=March 2018|fix-attempted=yes}} — The site would not allow entry without a cookie, so a typical crawler would be redirected to mlvb's cookiecheck page, the last snapshot of which is from 12 October 2017.
• Mowser (mowser.com){{cite web |title=About |work=Mowser |publisher=afilias.tech |year=2011 |url=http://mowser.com/about.php |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170205113812/http://mowser.com/about.php |archive-date=2017-02-05}} — Alternately marketed with the mowser.mobi domain name, which is now a permanent deadlink. The last snapshot of a working page is dated 22 September 2017.{{cite web |title=mowser.mobi |publisher=Mowzer |year=2011 |url=http://mowser.com |url-status = dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170922072607/http://mowser.com/ |archive-date=2017-09-22}} As of 30 March 2018, the site has been shut down.{{cite web |title=Mowser.com has been shut down! |publisher=Afilias Plc |location=Republic of Ireland |year=2017 |url=http://mowser.com |access-date=2018-03-31}}

• Browser wars
• Device Description Repository
• i-mode
• Information appliance
• Mobile web
• Mobile content
• Usage share of web browsers
• User agent
• Web Compatibility Test for Mobile Browsers

{{Reflist | 30em}}

• [http://www.w3.org/Mobile/ W3C Mobile Web Initiative] — “The Mobile Web Initiative's goal is to make browsing the Web from mobile devices a reality”, explains Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the Web.
• [http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/NOTE-compactHTML-19980209/ Compact HTML for Small Information Appliances — W3C NOTE 9 February 1998]
• [http://www.openmobilealliance.org/ Open Mobile Alliance]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20101016015139/http://na.blackberry.com/eng/developers/browserdev/ Blackberry Browser Developer site]

{{web browsers|mobile}}

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