Emil Bergner

Emil,

> So basically, *do you think the amount of mobile browsers that support the
> "handheld" mediatype will increase or decrease in the next 1-2 years,
> please explain?*

I cannot predict the future. The way I write and teach is based on the fact
that the future is unpredictable, and the best approach is to write for all
possibilities.

For now, most popular mobile browsers (Opera, Opera Mini, Netfront, Pocket
IE, even Openwave) support handheld media, and I don't see any of them
rushing to reduce their standards support. The only big player that does not
is Safari/WebKit. They chose media queries instead of media types (even
though Opera has managed to allow both for a very long time). That may set a
precedent, but it may not. You would have to ask the companies who are
working on new browsers.

It may also change as devices become more capable with faster connections,
and their browsers may not be thought of as limited handheld browsers any
more. This is where media queries are more flexible.

What I suspect is that more browsers will offer their users the choice to
use mobile rendering or desktop rendering. Opera and Opera Mini already do
this. Netfront also offers something similar on some devices. But the world
of mobile browsers moves slowly (sporadic new projects will come and go that
re-use an existing mobile browser, but they are largely unimportant). By 2
years time, they might have finally decided whether or not handheld media is
still useful. Then give them another 2 years, and they might have actually
implemented some changes.


Mark 'Tarquin' Wilton-Jones - author of http://www.howtocreate.co.uk/

Emil,

> I was under the impression that both PocketIE and NetFront (haven't been
> able to find a lot of info on Openwave) didn't support handheld media

NetFront does, as I stated on my page that you referred to, support it on
some devices where it is deemed appropriate. This includes many phones. On
PocketPC it uses screen media, since they feel that a pocket PC is not
handheld device - not sure why.

Pocket IE also supports handheld, but combines it with screen media, also
something I stated on that page.

That page also contains details of OpenWave.

> Also it seems the native browser for Nokia series 40 doesn't support it
> either

The series 40 browser is not a Web browser. It is a WAP excuse for a browser
(and as I said, I ignore WAP browsers because they deliberately do not try
to support anything useful), and has been replaced by the WebKit based
browser on current series 60s. WebKit may start supporting handheld in
future. All it takes is for someone to write a patch for it. That's what
happened with its media queries support, which was written by Nokia, I
think.

> Now that would mean not a single Nokia phone, by default, supports the
> handheld media, that's saying a lot considering Nokia's market share of
aprox. 40 %.

A lot of Nokias used Opera, though resellers can always remove it (for
example, the 6680 is supposed to have Opera, but Orange UK remove it, and
leave it with only the useless series 40 browser). But yes, the ones that
now use WebKit do not support handheld. A number of users install Opera Mini
though, so the fact that it is not there by default does not mean that it is
not used. What is used is what is important, not what is there by default.
Otherwise all Windows users would use IE, after all, which is certainly not
the case.

Emil,

>   2. Some special custom versions use only handheld media
>      ... However, these versions are not very common.
> So do you mean #2 applies to a lot of phones then?

A lot? Relative to other mobile browsers, no. But so far, this has been the
case for the versions of NetFront that I have seen installed on some normal
small screen phones by Samsung and Sony Ericsson. Often these are then
replaced with Opera Mini. Versions for Palm (their own OS), Windows Mobile,
and some others that I have seen do not. By "a lot" I mean "enough that they
should not be ignored when developing sites to work with mobiles". I realise
that is a completely arbitrary qualitative value, but such is Web
development.

> On a phone I would think mainstream users would be even more inclined to
> use the native browser as they aren't as accustomed to installing
> programs on a phone as they are on a PC.

In my experience, phone browser users in European countries are very
enlightened (phone browsing is not so common, and only a certain type of
person seems interested in trying). They tend to go looking for the best
browsers, very different to the desktop approach. In Japan, I am told that
phones are exceptionally popular - just about everyone has them. Opera and
Netfront are by far the most common there.

> this has been the case for the versions of NetFront that I have seen
> installed on some normal small screen phones by Samsung and Sony
> Ericsson.

Sorry, just Sony Ericsson. With Samsung it uses screen media, and reformats
the page. Given the popularity of Sony Eriksson, I still stand by my other
comments though ;)