No Internet Explorer Mobile 6 For You...Unless You Buy a New Phone Next Year

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://blogs.zdnet.com/cell-phones/?p=319' target='_blank'>http://blogs.zdnet.com/cell-phones/?p=319</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"There has been a few rants posted over the last week or so about the statement that was made on a Microsoft Windows Mobile blog pertaining to the apparent lack of support for existing devices to support the upcoming Internet Explorer Mobile 6 web browser. James is one person not happy about it and echoes many of the comments made on the MSDN blog post. Brett is not happy either and made it a point to show how there are third party browsers that exceed anything Microsoft currently has with Internet Explorer Mobile and what it looks like Internet Explorer Mobile 6 may also support."</em></p><p>Matt Miller has written up a great article on this rather thorny subject. The whole thing is an unfortunate blow to the Windows Mobile platform, heaping insult upon injury. The insult is that Microsoft has had, literally, 5+ years to take the lead in creating a great mobile browsing experience, and they haven't. They stuck to their minimalist, "just barely renders HTML" strategy until the iPhone made desktop-like browsing a major factor in the eyes of consumers (not counting connection speed of course - 3G speeds where I am still suck!). Then, a year and a half later, with the iPhone being in its second generation, Microsoft starts to talk about IE Mobile 6 - and I think "OK, it's been a long wait, but maybe this will be worth it".</p><p>Now comes the injury: apparently Microsoft developers were unable to code something that would work on current generation hardware because it just didn't have enough grunt. The really "underpowered" <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/news/show/91460/htc-touch-pro-unboxing-and-first-impressions.html" target="_blank">HTC Touch Pro</a>, with its 524 Mhz CPU and 288 MB of RAM, just couldn't handle this "monster" browser. I'm not a developer, but come on Microsoft - if mobile browsers like Opera Mobile and Skyfire can work on our devices today, why can't IE Mobile 6? This whole issue just makes my blood pressure raise - from the outside looking in, it looks like Microsoft just didn't realize that mobile browsing was important until it was too late.</p>

[Pony99CA]

I'm not a developer, but come on Microsoft - if mobile browsers like Opera Mobile and Skyfire can work on our devices today, why can't IE Mobile 6?
Comparing Skyfire isn't really fair, as that uses their servers to speed things up. But Opera Mobile is stand-alone as far as I know.

Steve

P.S. We've been discussing this in Ed's thread (http://forums.thoughtsmedia.com/f352/internet-explorer-6-windows-mobile-devices-no-upgrades-updates-new-devices-only-91373.html). ;)

[Sven Johannsen]

Comparing Skyfire isn't really fair, as that uses their servers to speed things up. But Opera Mobile is stand-alone as far as I know.

That's for sure. Using a backend server to do the processing to create a relatively standard package for your display client to show is significantly easier than trying to get a compact browser to process complex pages. I have found that SkyFire does a better job than Opera in some of the stuff I visit/need, but I sort of expected that. On the other hand, Opera works full screen on my RedFly, Skyfire won't even run. The kicker is that SkyFire's backend servers cost money. It's free right now in Beta, but come release, you are gonna see a subscription fee or add based capability. There is no way they can sustain a backend server farm without some continual revenue.

P.S. We've been discussing this in Ed's thread (http://forums.thoughtsmedia.com/f352/internet-explorer-6-windows-mobile-devices-no-upgrades-updates-new-devices-only-91373.html). ;)

We sure have. I am looking forward to the ubiquitous 1GHz, 2G Ram devices we are going to run this on.:rolleyes:

[Jason Dunn]

Comparing Skyfire isn't really fair, as that uses their servers to speed things up. But Opera Mobile is stand-alone as far as I know.

Yes, I know how Skyfire works, so I know it's not an identical solution. Regardless of the implementation, it's still another browser solution offered in a market where Microsoft is offering nothing to the current users - and that was my real point. Microsoft had DeepFish, another server-assisted solution, and that didn't last very long.

[alese]

...Now comes the injury: apparently Microsoft developers were unable to code something that would work on current generation hardware because it just didn't have enough grunt. The really "underpowered" <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/news/show/91460/htc-touch-pro-unboxing-and-first-impressions.html" target="_blank">HTC Touch Pro</a>, with its 524 Mhz CPU and 288 MB of RAM, just couldn't handle this "monster" browser. I'm not a developer, but come on Microsoft - if mobile browsers like Opera Mobile and Skyfire can work on our devices today, why can't IE Mobile 6? This whole issue just makes my blood pressure raise - from the outside looking in, it looks like Microsoft just didn't realize that mobile browsing was important until it was too late.</p>

Microsoft is lying or at least purposely deceiving.
The only way to test the browser on real hardware would be to install it on current devices - there aren't any better devices at the moment, so saying that it doesn't run on current HW is a lie.
Unless of course they haven't tested the program on actual hardware at all - which would be even worse as far as I'm concerned.
Also for what is worth (and yes I realize Thoughts Media doesn't want to encurage discussions about it), but the IE Mobile 6 is already running in some cooked ROMs not only on current devices but also on current WM 6.1. Unless Microsoft has another better and more powerful version of IE Mobile 6 than again there is no truth in their statements.
And lastly - the new devices in 2009 will have 800MHz or even 1GHz CPUs and I guess more RAM/Flash, but that will only be some high end devices, I'm sure there will be a bunch of WM devices released in 2009 with pretty much the specs as they are now - so will we have a Vist/XP situation here, where high end devices will get WM 6.5 and IE Mobile 6 and "normal" devices will stay stuck with WM 6.1 and PIE?

[virain]

And lastly - the new devices in 2009 will have 800MHz or even 1GHz CPUs and I guess more RAM/Flash, but that will only be some high end devices, I'm sure there will be a bunch of WM devices released in 2009 with pretty much the specs as they are now - so will we have a Vist/XP situation here, where high end devices will get WM 6.5 and IE Mobile 6 and "normal" devices will stay stuck with WM 6.1 and PIE?

I don't think MS lying or deceiving anybody. From the beginning MS was shooting for mobile device that can run full Windows OS, and as you mentioned, New devices for 2009 will have enough muscle to do it. that's why I think MS still didn't release WM7 but going with WM6.5, Showing of IE6 is just what you call "testing waters" to see how public will react. And to be fair, from what I've seen on IE6 it is more powerful than any Opera Mobile or Skyfire or even Safari browsers available today. So my take on it is that new WM7 devices will have larger screens 3.5' - 4', give you more Windows, maybe even XP experience with friendlier interface for finger use, and actually become more of MIDs with phone features, than your regular smartphone.

[Stinger]

This is bizarre. Nokia's WebKit-based browser runs fine on 200Mhz devices with limited RAM. That's despite WebKit being a notorious resource hog.

What gives with IEM6? I assumed that it would be pretty lightweight.

[David Tucker]

I think this has to be incredibly frustrating to new Touch Pro owners since those devices blow away the rest of the market. And I have my eye on the Sony Xperia X1. The only saving grace is Opera Mobile. Since I'll have that I'll be able to live without the new IE6 but still it seems like the top of the line WinMo devices are true powerhouses for once and for MS to say that they can't support them just seems bizarre.

Now it may not be entirely true either. The current models may not get it...but I could see a couple upgraded to WinMo 6.5 such as the Touch Pro & X1. If they are then I imagine they'd get the upgrade. But that's the only way I see it happenning.

The suspense of what WinMo 7 is is killing me too. But I really like the X1 and my Wing really kinda sucks so its tempting to get it now.

[SteveHoward999]

I wonder if it's just some pedantic approach on Microsoft's part ... seems to me they were rumoured to have wanted to use the IE 6 code, rather than write a new browser that works like IE 6.

*However* I agree with the comments here that there are other browser offerings for mobile that give near desktop experiences, especially the Webkit browser. So it should be possible for Microsoft to come up with something similar, but, I suspect, not by using the existing IE 6 code.

Then there's the 'horespower' issue. Comparing a mobile prcessor to a desktop prcessor is a common mistake ... mobile browsers are not so powerful as similar speed desktop processors. Just because it says 800Mhz on the box does not mean that the processor has the same power as a desktop 800MHz processr. Even if it did - I don't think I'd want to run IE 6 on an 800MHz pentium today :-)

But all that is moot if ... didn't we already see video that seems to demo IE 6 on a Samsung BlackJack II or Epic?

[Xentrax]

I beleive that the real issue with bringing new IE to current devices is that it should be separate download. I cannot remember much separate downloads from Microsoft for CE devices that replace exisiting functionality.

For instance, if I recall correctly, it was not possible to replace preinstalled Live Messenger with updated verison. I am not sure whether it's lack of resources (that are busy programming WM7) or just some agreements with vendors but there won't be separate download for IE.

[alese]

Well I flashed new ROM on my Advantage.
And I can say that IE 6 Mobile works on current hardware (well technically previous generation as I have a year old X7500).
So how does it work - OK, I'm actually posting this in IE 6 Mobile and the whole experience is not all that bad.
Pages load roughly on par with latest Opera Mobile 9.5 beta2, and for the most part they render exactly as on desktop (normal version of Google Reader didn't load, but while it does load in Opera it doesn't work so OK.
Rendering is actually a problem, as it doesn't squeeze the page to the width of thej screen and you have to scroll left and right in order to see the whole page. Unless of course if you use zoom out. In general zoom works OK, but it's not nearly as intuitive as in Opera or Safari. There is no double tap to zoom in/out you havbe to do it old fasion way, with menues. And this old fasion way is really how the whole application feels, the look and feel is old fasion, you have (old fasion) scrool bars visible, full screen is not automatic or default...
Basically application feels exactly the same as desktop version of IE6 including the fact that it doesn't have tabs.
But it does play YouTube videos - slowly of course.
You get an impression that they basically recompiled the desktop version on Windows CE and ARM...

I guess it's a huge step forward for Microsoft and in some ways it's great, but I would say that in general it still lags the modern mobile browsers in regads to UI and whole user experience.

[Pony99CA]

I beleive that the real issue with bringing new IE to current devices is that it should be separate download. I cannot remember much separate downloads from Microsoft for CE devices that replace exisiting functionality.
I recall a few downloads. At one point early in the Pocket PC history, I think you could download a later version of Windows Media Player (without the garish colors). I believe there were also downloadable versions of Messenger (after a fix broke logging in) and Microsoft Reader. I also recall being able to download most (if not all) of the differences between Pocket PC 2002 Premium and Pocket PC 2002 Professional.

In general, though, downloading should only be a temporary fix until a ROM update is available. Those programs will take up storage memory and disappear if you do a hard reset, so you really want them in ROM.

Steve

[hursto75]

I really don't care if they get rid of Explorer, I haven't used it since I got the phone. After finding out all the stuff Explorer didn't do it was easy to switch to Skyfire. Plus what is the reason to have 3g if you can't watch flash video once in a while.

Thanks,

[Pony99CA]

Plus what is the reason to have 3g if you can't watch flash video once in a while.
Slingbox

Steve