Skyfire 8.0 mobile browser has hit the mobile browser market and it is getting a lot of appreciation from tech gurus and mobile phone users. It is a great mobile browser that delivers speed and media-rich experience, similar to the PC browser. With Skyfire, watching YouTube videos, exploring Google Maps, and sharing content like SMS is fast, efficient and amazing. It is competing with Opera Mobile and is actually considered to be better in terms of its ability to bring all of the web’s multimedia and interactivity to a phone. Skyfire is still in beta and is available only to US residents. However, it seems quite promising and has an edge over its competitors Opera Mobile, Mobile Safari and IE Mobile. But we have to wait and see whether the Skyfire will rule the mobile browser industry or not.

A look at Skyfire Mobile Browser

Among all of the mobile browsers currently available in the market, Skyfire is the most respected browser. Skyfire is a mobile web browser for Windows Mobile 5 and 6 and Symbian S60 v3. It is basically a proxy browser that loads the call up page on a server, compresses it, and sends the compact version to the phone. Skyfire features mobile browsing exactly like PC, support for Flash, Silverlight and AJAX, quick and easy usability and simple content sharing.  Recently version 8.0 of Skyfire Mobile Browser has been launched. In, Mobile Browser Skyfire Releases New Features, Corvida describes the new Skyfire 8.0 features.

• New Super Bar that combines search and URL entry into one bar
• Skyfire can now be set as the default browser
• New search bar on the Homescreen
• New start page redesign
• Faster start-up and page loading times
• Share a link via SMS
• Invite friends to download Skyfire via SMS
• Save an image
• Download files

This smart browser is elegant and slick. It supports the desktop version of Adobe Flash applications so users can easily browse sites like YouTube, Google Maps, Facebook and Hulu.  This mobile web browser also supports all of the latest web technologies including Silverlight, Ajax and QuickTime.

Since the service is in beta, there are some bugs as well. It does not support Pocket Internet Explorer bookmarks. During browsing, if the Skyfire lost service then user has to quit the application and restart the browser.  We expect that the Skyfire people will address these issues before its final release.

Skyfire vs. Mobile Safari vs. Opera Mobile

Many mobile web browsers are available in the market but there are only three real competitors -  Skyfire, Mobile Safari and Opera Mobile. Every brand claims to revolutionize the industry and helps mobile users browse the web just like they do on their PCs - with speed and simplicity.

Skyfire is known for its fast and media-enriched browser experience, Opera Mobile features tabbed browsing and Safari is loved due to its landscape or horizontal page views. But who is leading the race? Todd Haselton has conducted a website test to compare the three browsers and has described the findings in his post, Mobile Browser Showdown: iPhone 3G vs Opera Mobile and Skyfire.  Below are his findings.

This comparison clearly indicates that Skyfire is the speediest web browser among the three. Its support for Flash, Silverlight and AJAX makes it an ideal mobile web browser. Todd says, “Skyfire loads an image of the website first, then you must zoom in to access data on the page. However, we found that the zooming was efficient and that we were still able to access live data faster than on Opera 9.5.1 Beta and Mobile Safari… If I had to choose a winning combination, it would be the Skyfire browser on an iPhone. Skyfire loads pages faster than anything we’ve ever come across, and its support for robust web pages makes us feel like we took our computer’s browser and put it on a 3-inch screen. The biggest sacrifice is that the page is small, and you have to zoom a lot. We love Safari because the iPhone’s touch screen makes the zooming task efficient and easy, but it doesn’t support Flash 9 embedded media or websites and it loads every other site slower.”

Desktop-like rendering and multimedia support are unique features of Skyfire mobile web browser, which help it stand out from the rest.  Watching online videos, listening to online music and visiting your favorite social network from your mobile is really fun. In fact, it is becoming necessary. The future of Skyfire mobile browser seems quite bright and critics are hoping that up until its final release, it will be the ultimate mobile web browser. Let’s see if the Skyfire will be able to meet the expectations?

References:

Todd.Haselton. (2008). Mobile Browser Showdown: iPhone 3G vs Opera Mobile and Skyfire.  Retrieved Sept. 26^th, 2008 from http://blog.laptopmag.com/mobile-browser-showdown-iphone-3g-vs-opera-mobile-and-skyfire

Corvida. (2008). Mobile Browser Skyfire Releases New Features.  Retrieved Sept. 26^th, 2008 from http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/skyfire_opens_to_the_public_new_features.php