The burst of mobile internet surfing is attributed to microbrowsers. These nifty programs allow you to access the web from any location as long as an active signal is available on the mobile device. Microbrowsers work in different ways. For instance, the Safari browser on iPhones, iPods and iPads displays the web page in all it’s glory (minus Flash objects).
Others like Opera Mini (the most popular at the time of writing), Skyfire, Teashark or UZard display a full web page on the small mobile screen instead of a scaled down version. This is achieved by first parsing it on a server that partly or completely renders the page and sends the results to the mobile device.
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Blazer from Palm, Inc
The web browser for handhelds with Palm OS 3.1 or higher.
Current version: 4.5
UC Browser from UCWEB Technology
Free browser for a variety of cell phones and the iPhone.
Current version: 7.6
JOCA from InteracT!V
Free mobile browser for the Symbian cell phones that lets you search and read Wikipedia articles.
Current version: 4.5
Opera Mini from Opera Software ASA
Probably the world’s most popular mobile web browser and available for a variety of operating systems.
Current version: 7
Opera Mobile from Opera Software ASA
Freeware mobile web browser for Android, Symbian, Maemo, MeeGo and Windows platforms.
Current version: 12.0.01 for Android and Symbian. 10.0 for Windows
Bolt from Bitstream Inc.
The free Bolt browser gives users a fast, efficient and feature-rich way to enjoy full PC-style web pages and rich media applications on the tiny screens of their mobile devices.
Current version: 2.52
Firefox from Mozilla
Code named Fennec, this version of the Firefox web browser is for mobile phones and personal digital assistants. It’s available for Android 2.1 and above systems.
Current version: 6
ibisBrowserDX from ibis inc.
Developed by a Japanese company and very popular in that country, the ibisBrowser is based on both Java and C++ (for Windows Mobile phones).
Teashark from Teashark
The Teashark free mobile browser delivers a web page quite like desktop browsers. It offers a 2-level zoom, landscape mode, bookmark management with color tagging , tabbed browsing, preview based history and visited web pages list.
Current version: 0.419 beta
Internet Explorer Mobile from Microsoft
IE Mobile is a microbrowser that runs on both Windows mobile and CE platforms.
Current version: 9
MicroB
MicroB is Nokia’s Mozilla based browser for maemo that can also be extended with available plugins. It has AJAX support and supports XML to render RSS feeds.
Current version: 1.0.4
Minimo from Mozilla (Doug Turner)
Free open source cross platform mobile web browser with tab browsing and RSS support.
Current version: 0.2
Obigo Browser from OBIGO
The Obigo browser works on many mobile platforms including Windows Mobile and Symbian. It suports zoom, multiple windows, touch screen and has an RSS reader.
Current version: Q7.3-1.2
Steel from Kolbysoft (Michael Kolb)
The free Steel mobile web browser has been developed by Michael Kolb for the Android operating system. The browser gives full screen browsing with auto-rotation and a virtual keyboard. It’s available at the Android Market.
Current version: 0.1.7
Skyfire from Skyfire
Skyfire is a freeware mobile browser for Android and iOS operating systems. With support for full Flash and Windows Media videos, Skyfire lets you browse any web page exactly like you do on a computer. It is also supposedly very fast and adheres to the major Web 2.0 standards.
Current version: 4.1.0
Skweezer from Skweezer, Inc.
Skweeder is a mobile HTML transcoder which reformats and compresses web content to reduce web page size so that it can be displayed quickly and properly on the small mobile device screen.
UZard Web from Logicplant Co.,Ltd.
UZard Web is a cross platform mobile web browser that allows users to view full web pages instead of the “”mobile versions””. The browser thus shows the same screen as you see on the computer. Supposedly the fastest mobile web browser, UZard Web doesn’t require high processing power and can be easily customized. The browser is available for Windows Mobile, Blackberry and Android.
Current version: 1.1.16
jB5 Browser from Comviva
The jB5 Mobile browser can be made to run on several different platforms like Linux, Symbian, Windows Mobile and Brew.
Current version: 1.38.60
Vision Mobile Browser from Novarra Inc.
Vision is a cross-platform browser and supports Flash, video, full HTML, complex JavaScript, AJAX, RSS and widgets.
Current version: 8
Safari from Apple Inc.
Safari is a mobile browser used primarily on the iPhone, iTouch and the iPad. It renders the complete web page and not a scaled down version. The user-friendliness of the iPhone coupled with Safari has helped the device get almost 65% share of mobile web usage.
Current version: 5.1
Netfront from Access Co. Ltd.
Developed by a Japanese company, Netfront is a microbrowser used on mobile phones, PDAs, same consoles (Sony Play Station Portable).
Current version: 4.1
Polaris from Infraware
The Polaris web browser can be made to run on any operating system and is easily customizable. It is used on mobile phones from companies like Samsung, LG etc.
Current version: 7
WinWAP from WinWAP technologies
WinWAP as its name suggests is a mobile web browser for devices that run Windows Mobile operating system. The browser is not free.
Current version: 4.1
BlackBerry browser from BlackBerry
The Blackberry browser lets you surf full HTML content with the ability to download ringtones, video and audio files.
Android Browser from Google
The native web browser on G1. Will probably be replaced by mobile version of Chrome.
Maxthon Mobile Browser from Maxthon International Limited
Free browser for the Android system which enables you to resume downloads, view pictures, listen to music, read RSS feeds and much more.
Current version: 2.2.4
Sleipnir from Fenrir Inc.
Available for Windows Phone, Android and the iPhone/iPad, the Sleipnir browser offers flicking and other gestures.
Current version: 3
Chrome from Google
Google’s web browser available for the Android 4.0 and later.
Nintendo DS Browser from Nintendo
The Nintendo DS Browser is available on the Nintendo DS of Nintendo DS Lite. It supports dual screen and touch screen features.
Silk browser from Amazon
Silk is the native browser for the Amazon Kindle Fire.
Dolphin Browser from MoboTap Inc.
Dolphin runs on Android and iOS platforms. It can display Flash but may have problems with video streaming.
Tristit Browser from Tristit Group
Java based browser also available for Android and BlackBerry platforms.
