Web Browser in a Nutshell

From Symbian Developer Community

Nutshell guides are technology introductions for the less technical reader. They are designed to provide an overview of the relative advantages/disadvantages, and effort-to-use of a particular programming environment.

The web browser on mid- to high-end mobile handsets has matured into an environment that offers the functionality of PC-based browsers. There are a variety of solutions in the marketplace today, including Nokia Web Browser for S60 (based on WebKit), Microsoft Internet Explorer Mobile and Opera Web Browser/Opera Mini. Note that all of these share some core code with C-based browsers (Safari, IE and Opera respectively). This commonality means that for many applications, your PC-based web content can be easily repurposed for mobile using familiar web technologies. However, it should be remembered that there are many differences between the PC and mobile use-cases as well as platform limitations – screen size being the most obvious. Testing on a variety of mobile devices and networks is as important as testing on different PC browsers.

Browser-based mobile content often makes sense as a low-cost option for a first move into the mobile space. Skills are readily available and build times are relatively low. The flip side of this is that functionality is extremely limited and compared to application-based approaches, the user experience can suffer. For example, it may take a significant amount of time for the browser itself to launch (let alone load your content) and typing a URL on a numeric keypad is not always easy.

1 Key features
2 Pros and Cons
3 Effort estimate
4 Market share indicator
5 Examples
6 Reference

Key features

True web layout – some browsers display web content as it would look on a desktop screen, without resizing or repurposing for the handset display
Browsers offer different levels of standards support, including HTML, XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, AJAX, Flash Lite and SVGT 1.1 content embedded in web pages, as well as RSS subscription functionality, etc. Check the documentation for the different browsers for further information
Many websites designed for PC will be accessible and usable on high-end mobile web browsers without alteration. In these cases, the development process should be one of optimization for mobile
Unlike an application, the content or look-and-feel of a website can be updated for all users instantaneously. This allows incremental feature launches and also means faster development cycles

Pros and Cons

Pros

Some browsers deliver a full, highly standards-compliant, desktop-like web experience
Web content runs in a limited sandbox; it does not need to go through the same security checking as installed applications, so the deployment cycle is quicker
Support for web standards means that development skills are readily available in the community
Allows content originators to update content immediately for all users
A single, well-designed web page should be similarly usable on desktop and mobile devices, with no need to maintain separate pages
No complicated or intimidating installation is required from the user in mobile Internet browsing. Content should be optimized for effective utilization of the browser cache

Cons

The content or application will be unavailable when there is no Internet connection
Latency, data transfer speeds and network data charges are significant considerations
Rendering web pages can stress the CPU, so page rendering may take a noticeable time to complete
Some devices have limited memory available for pages and images. Exceeding this memory limitation may result in incomplete display and other problems
Page weight is an issue not only from speed and memory perspectives, but also because many users are billed by the amount of data downloaded
A badly designed web page, which has not been tested on a real device, displays poorly or may not even display at all
Currently no access to device features
Some browsers (e.g., Opera Mini and Skyfire) use a transcoding server at the network head-end to pre-format content. This means that your content is not directly communicating with the handset itself, which can cause problems with session identification and AJAX functionality

Effort estimate

(1 – 5, where 1 is the easiest)
1 2 3 4 5

Market share indicator

The vast majority of mobile handsets in circulation in the developed world feature one form of web browser or another. As an example, around 80 million devices have shipped with Nokia Web Browser for S60