Skyfire, a Web browser for Windows Mobile devices being demonstrated at DEMO 08. WiFiPlanet thinks it may represent the future of mobile Web browsing.
Unlike other mobile browsers, Skyfire supports dynamic Flash, advanced Ajax, and Java, something the mobile version of Safari for the iPhone does not.
Skyfire displays the whole splash page and can zoom in on any section. It will automatically fit text and other content to a smartphone’s screen to minimize scrolling.
And because Skyfire supports Flash, videos run directly within the browser when you go to view them. This goes for any site that sports Flash. By contrast, since Safari does not support Flash, you can’t access YouTube or any other sites’ Flash content.
Instead, to view YouTube videos on the iPhone you must use Apple’s proprietary YouTube application, which is completely separate from Safari and only plays videos after they’ve been converted to an iPhone-friendly format.
According to Google and Yahoo, the iPhone browser this Christmas season accounted for more than 50 percent of mobile traffic — with the iPhone having only a 2 percent share of the mobile phone market at that point. This should really open it up.
Users can register for a beta version of Skyfire here; the browser is expected to be available in coming weeks. DailyWireless has more on Demo 08.
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