Monday, 1. October 2007, 07:58:09
Opera, Mini, Mobile
Over the last couple of conferences I've attended I've heard a whole lot about designing for iPhone and that it is the only browser worthy of being called Mobile 2.0 (whatever that is). A revolution is about to happen and it revolved around one shiny device (or make that recently two).
Of course, in reality that isn't strictly true. Opera Mini has been blazing its own trail for a long time, irrespective of iPhone. I'm stuck in D.C. Airport for a number of hours, so I thought I'd check on how we are crumbling below the might of the fruit company. Last month we had a commanding lead over that browser according to Net Applications. This month's figures are in, and with all the continued hype and the recent release of the iPod Touch, you'd have expected things to have swayed. Not so.
The iPhone has seen a respectable climb from 0.05% in August to 0.07% of the entire browser market in September. How did Opera Mini do in the same period? In August it had 0.27% of the entire browser market. September however eclipsed this with 0.39%. This growth alone is bigger than the rest of the mobile browser share market combined. Unless I'm delusional as I've not slept for a number of days.
What does this mean? Well don't believe the hype. There is no before iPhone and after iPhone. It is more before Mini and after Mini. Mini is destroying the competition. It's no surprise when two of biggest markets for mobile web access are India and China, and it is unlikely the iPhone/iPod will ever reach the masses in these territories, not to mention the emerging markets in Africa, Asia and South America. Many of these countries are places where the only way they have to access the web is via a mobile. There are also countries where home grown handset brands are very strong, particularly in the Far East. The mobile market isn't simply a one size fits all market.
It also means I'm failing to do my job. Why? Because I'm finding it very difficult to get designers to have any interest in Mini, in light of other browsers, while away from the development community it ca be seen it is catching on like wildfire. There is a huge market out there, that people are failing to look at or take into account. Maybe it is just because we don't have The Shiny
. If Mini continues on its current course, it'll be impossible to ignore.
Sunday, 9. September 2007, 19:02:02
iPod, iPhone, standards, Safari
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The issues of designing foe one browser, never-mind one device, should be very clear to anyone that has promoted web standards and the open web. Apple themselves have made this even more clear by their latest move. They've just recently anouned the iPod Touch, with the included Safari browser. Now this doesn't suffer from many of the problems of designing for one browser or device; It has the same screen, the same engine and likely the same hardware. However, if we look at all those URLs that have been coming out in the last weeks. like digg.com/iphone, mediatemple.net/iphone et al. we have a problem. It is easy to imagine that iPod Safari users will think these sites are for iPhone only, when they'd in fact work just great on the iPod. Work great that is as long as the authors don't use browser sniffing to detect the iPhone (providing the iPod uses a different user agent string, I'm not sure). These sites will often also work great on other mobile browsers like the S60 browser, Opera Mini and Opera Mobile, but the URLs suggest otherwise.
Of course, the naming and the iPod issue isn't the only reason why it is short sighted. I've hi-lighted why one browser design is bad, in that it introduces cases where you rely (even accidentally) on browser bugs and vendor specific extensions. It may not matter to you, after all the Iphone/ipod is really hot, but it does matter to your potential customers. If we look who there are, then you'll probably see something like this:
Mobile/Handheld browser share for August 2007, as percentage of total browser market share
Data from Net Applications
- Opera Mini: 0.27%
- iPhone Safari: 0.05%
- PSP Internet Browser: 0.02%
- Series60 Browser: 0.02%
- Danger Web Browser: 0.02%
- ACCESS NetFront: 0.01%
- BlackBerry: 0.00%
Mobile/Handheld growth, July '07 to August '07, as percentage of total browser market share
- Opera Mini: + 0.03 (0.24 -> 0.27)
- iPhone Safari: + 0.01 (0.04 -> 0.05)
- PSP Internet Browser: 0
- Danger Web Browser: 0
- ACCESS NetFront: 0
- Series60 Browser: - 0.01%
- BlackBerry: Doesn't feature in July features
The iPhone and Series60 figures were taken from the Operating System figures. For iPhone this will be a accurate measure as Safari is the only browser available. For Series60 it will also include other browsers like Opera Mobile. As always with statistics, take them with a grain of salt. I don't know which sites were monitored to get these figures. As they are a US based company, I'd expect (but don't know) the stats to be biased towards the US or English speaking countries, where Apple tends to be stronger. Nokia tends to be stronger outside the US and Opera Mini historically is also more popular outside the states as Mini doesn't work on Verizon phones and has had issues with T-mobile US.
At least by these figures, Mini is not only far more popular than all the other mobile browsers (put together) but is also growing faster. This is something to bear in mind when thinking of making a device/browser specific web site, or optimisation. I'm certainly not saying to make Mini only sites though, digg.com/mini would just be as bad. Imagine how much work it would be to update and create the regular site, and a Mini, iPhone/iPod and Wii version for example. Admittedly, there is not much to go on with just two months data, and things will likely change as time goes on. The global role out of the iPhone will help its marketshare, when that eventually happens. Mini will always be available on more devices, and more carriers, and in markets where Apple doesn't focus. There are markets where devices like the iPhone will be too expensive, such as the developing world, where feature phones rule. There are a lot of people in these markets. I think iPhone will eventually get a significant percentage of the mobile market and be a major mobile browser, but I don't think it will take over the industry like it has for digital music players. Another advantage Mini has is that for the most part, the users of Mini are people that downloaded a mobile browser because they want to surf the web. For many other mobile browsers, they are pre-installed applications that people don't always use, or know what the application does. Safari wont often have this problem either as Apple will market internet on the iPhone heavily and people buying the iPhone will probably be see it as a reason for purchasing the phone. Who knows who will eventually become the major player beyond the desktop, but I don't think it will be a one horse race like happened on desktop.
Thursday, 30. August 2007, 18:39:22
Handheld, Media Queries, Mobile, Mini
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All systems have been go, getting ready for the beta/alpha releases of our two flagship products. While Kestrel will spread its wings on Tuesday, I got a birthday present today with the launch of the second beta (if we were Web 2.0 that would be Gamma) release of Opera Mini 4. Many bugs have been fixed, including better integration with the Blackberry for all you crack(berry) addicts. As Mini 4 was a full re-write, many popular features were left out of the first beta. These are starting to return with today's release. Secure connections are back so it is safe to use your bank again. Content folding, and search engine customisation are also back. There are also more view options available, with landscape and full screen mode.
If you want to check out how much the standards support has improved since Mini 3 then download the beta then check out Cameron Moll's Markup test pages If you don't have a phone that supports Mini (that'll mostly be you Verizon customers) then you can check it out on the Mini 4 beta simulator. Note that ordered lists (ol) are supported, unlike what the test suggests. This seems to be a obscure bug with that particular page. If you are interested in designing for mobile then the first part in a series of guides about Opera Mini and mobile web design will be published by yours truly very soon on Dev Opera It will cover Opera Mini basics, how it differs from the desktop browser, and an introduction to handheld stylesheets and media queries. A more in-depth look into the specifications, particularly the JavaScript support, and an article focused on handheld and media queries will come at a later date.
I can also highly recommend Cameron Moll's hotly anticipated Mobile Web Design book that has just been released. This is the one book you should buy above others if you are interested in this field. It is well worth the $19 cover price. If you need to justify why you should create a mobile web strategy then this book should convince you that it is worthwhile. It is also one of the few texts on the topic of mobile recently, that doesn't preach designing for one device and one browsers. It is good to see the standards movement doesn't all have blinkers on.
Thursday, 14. June 2007, 20:26:43
Dimension, Mini
Times are busy at the moment as we are fastly approaching the beta release of one of our most exciting products in a while. Dimension, the codename for the next release of Opera Mini is set to go into public beta on the 19th of June. Sadly I can't reveal any of its secrets just yet, but it is looking to be a great release for web developers. I'm hoping it is going to do its part in advancing the mobile forward as it gains momentum this year. The mobile space is certainly an exciting place to be at the moment, and I'm sure there will be some great opportunities for someone to build the next big thing or killer app.
I've invited a number of people to check out the beta, but if you were not on the list then feel free to download it come the 19th at the Opera Mini beta site. Any feedback or bug reports are always appreciated.
Wednesday, 14. February 2007, 00:36:55
Motorola, Mini, Mobile, UIQ
There is a lot of talk about the new MOTORIZR Z8 phone, recently unveiled in Barcelona. This is not a surprise with its RAZR-esque looks and unique kick-flip mechanism. One point that has been overlooked however is as it is a Symbian phone (I think a first for the four letter series of phones), and more specifically UIQ on top of Symbian, it means the phone and OS have more power and thus includes the full Opera Mobile as the default browser. Although this isn't the first of the RAZR family of offshoots to support Opera mobile -- The MOTORAZR MAXX does so via a custom port to Motorola's own P2K OS I believe -- It is significant as a full smartphone OS has been crammed into a premium fashion phone, and an OS where Opera is the default browser for the platform. The phone was developed by the former Sendo team, so I guess this is the super secret project no one could talk about and many people working on the project hadn't even seen. It looks well worth the wait.
As You may remember, Opera Mobile was also included recently on three Sony Ericsson UIQ phones. I think the M600 and W950 are particularly stylish and slim phones. Both share the same form factor and beat out the Blackberries and Treos of this world for size, style and portability (The Perl excluded). UIQ and Opera are certainly starting to get a lot of hot stylish phones now. This should help the acceleration of standards based, full (X)HTML browsers in the hands of potential users of the mobile web.
Even excluding all the phones Opera Mini can be installed on after shipping or by service providers (Opera has big deals with T-Mobile and Telefonica), Opera has been included on many of the most stylish and desirable phones coming out recently, iPhone excluded. I can't wait to see what Samsung come out with. Even Nokia got in on the act with the 6300. I've not bee a big fan of Nokia phones recently, as although they have been powerful, they've often been big and clunky. I prefer smaller phones, and the 6300 is the first slim phone I've seen from Nokia in long time, but running Opera Mini it has no compromises on the web front.
It is not only Mobiles of course where we are getting all the desirable gadgets. Apart from the iPod and iPhone, I think most of the hottest products are Opera powered, at least those that are web capable. We have the Wii and DS of course, and also the Archos 604Wifi (very sleek with it's brushed metal casing), Sony Mylo and the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet. The web to go has never been so stylish or convenient. The iPod/iPhone is the only devices I can think of where Opera is unable to run. The PSP would be kind of nice, but the DS is well outselling it and it's touch screen is much more suitable for web surfing than the d-pad of the PSP.
