Opinionated comments on mobile phone industry news
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All entries are written by Anders Borg, CEO and Consultant of Abiro, that has a long experience in strategic planning, developing embedded and Java software, usability aspects, and the mobile phone industry in general. You can also read the latest Mobile News entries on your phone via wap.abiro.com, and we provide many News Feeds from popular news services. For advertising and contribution queries, please use the feedback form. News feed (local) FeedBurner Feed
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Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Jataayu doesn't want to beat dead (browser) horses
This note indicates Jataayu stays away from showcasing its new mobile browser on Windows Mobile and Palm OS. They've rather chosen Symbian OS / Series 60 as its reference platform.
It's not because of the quality of the browsers in Windows Mobile and Palm OS, as Nokia's new Safari-based browser is likely the best there is. The reason is rather said to be that customers of Windows Mobile and Palm OS use the included browser.
As Jataayu's market is phone manufacturers also for this browser (if I'm not mistaken) and not end-users, they rely on being able to sell its browser to platforms that have an optional browser. I'm wondering though why Nokia would ship the Series 60 platform without their own browser being mandatory. That would shut that door too.
Access (providing a mobile browser, KVM, application platform etc) is of a bit different opinion, but also says that it's hard to get any sensible market share on Windows Mobile.
The author of the note ponders on why Jataayu doesn't release a Java browser instead. A Java browser is a completely different beast, as it needs a transcoding gateway and is also shipped to consumers instead of manufacturers, and the testing required to launch a Java browser is staggering. What people don't seem to realize is that Opera already had a transcoding gateway before they released the Java browser. Of course they had to adapt it for the new markup language used by Opera mini, but still. Jataayu very likely doesn't have such a gateway, and Jataayu's strength is to sell middleware products to phone manufacturers.
It's no doubt that Opera did the right thing from an end-user point-of-view, as they address both new and existing phones, reviving phones that otherwise would only be able to browse non-existing WAP sites. The question mark that pops up is whether they might actually hurt their own embedded browser business, that per-unit generates much more money than Opera mini, but I guess they've thought that through.
Browsers in Windows Mobile and PalmOS scare ISV
It's not because of the quality of the browsers in Windows Mobile and Palm OS, as Nokia's new Safari-based browser is likely the best there is. The reason is rather said to be that customers of Windows Mobile and Palm OS use the included browser.
As Jataayu's market is phone manufacturers also for this browser (if I'm not mistaken) and not end-users, they rely on being able to sell its browser to platforms that have an optional browser. I'm wondering though why Nokia would ship the Series 60 platform without their own browser being mandatory. That would shut that door too.
Access (providing a mobile browser, KVM, application platform etc) is of a bit different opinion, but also says that it's hard to get any sensible market share on Windows Mobile.
The author of the note ponders on why Jataayu doesn't release a Java browser instead. A Java browser is a completely different beast, as it needs a transcoding gateway and is also shipped to consumers instead of manufacturers, and the testing required to launch a Java browser is staggering. What people don't seem to realize is that Opera already had a transcoding gateway before they released the Java browser. Of course they had to adapt it for the new markup language used by Opera mini, but still. Jataayu very likely doesn't have such a gateway, and Jataayu's strength is to sell middleware products to phone manufacturers.
It's no doubt that Opera did the right thing from an end-user point-of-view, as they address both new and existing phones, reviving phones that otherwise would only be able to browse non-existing WAP sites. The question mark that pops up is whether they might actually hurt their own embedded browser business, that per-unit generates much more money than Opera mini, but I guess they've thought that through.
Browsers in Windows Mobile and PalmOS scare ISV
