Blackberry devices and couple of thoughts about browsers

It may or may not surprise some people to know that at the end of last year my mobile shortlist was a Blackberry Curve and the N82 and if the job that I was moving into involved me being more mobile, I would probably have gone with it. Sony Ericsson are also bringing out phones that I would happily buy but they keep bringing them out around 3/4months after I am in a position to purchase one.

I have a growing admiration for blackberry devices, even though some of the earlier models looked a little like toy calculators (actually so did some phones to be fair) and that ringtone that tells the entire train carriage you are a Blackberry owner. Patent ’stuff’ aside (and I have never read RIM commercial history in detail to be able to comment only that there have been cases filed by both them and others) they seemed to understand the life of a nomadic professional very well and they have got two areas right - email and mobile security and even though some of the earlier models were not very pretty - the QWERTY keyboard seems to be designed well to fit into a smaller design space (or form factor if being technically more precise).

Designing an application for a blackberry is probably beyond the scope of what I can achieve with mobsessed for now, due to needing more Java coding experience, but I think there is a lot of potential to design interesting apps for blackberries as they continue to add newer functions and features into their models. They also provide various models and services through Grameenphone, so potential options there for consumers with less resources. There is also a Blackberry developer challenge underway. For web related apps, as far as I understand you can use either the inbuilt or Opera Mini as web browsers on blackberries.

Re browsers, I have been participating a little in a conversation around browsers from Mark Oehlert’s e-Clippings blog, where he asks a very good question about standardization of browsers - is there data used in decision making around browser procurement or whether it is just based on perception. He also mentions that he works in an organisation which does not allow downloading of a Firefox or non-IE browser.

And as Jay Cross mentions in Mark’s followup post, the significance of politics in the decision making. I have personally experienced this having been in a position (don’t wish to say exactly where and what) where had considerable input and ownership into a process to procure two big web ‘things’ for an organisation and prior to tender, our shortlist did not contain a Microsoft product and I can remember the resulting discussions within IT as we looked to move forward with the process. It is complex. Personally speaking I neither love or hate Microsoft and/or love or hate Apple - I can find good and bad in both and I don’t wish to get into any conversation about this, ever, quite simply because I do not find it an interesting subject to discuss

Stephen Downes also mentioned this week, experiencing frustrations about trying to use Firefox (opensource) on an opensource OS. So it doesn’t sound like we are there yet with opensource browsers. What about mobile ? Webkit is an opensource application framework which allows browsers to be created, is supported on S60, iphones, and at least one blackberry device. Opera mini which has achieved an incredible feat of working on the number of models that it does, is not open source (some of their widget APIs are I think). There are various other browsers out there for mobiles including Skyfire (supports Flash 9, don’t think opensource) and Thunderhawk (also don’t think opensource)

Firefox mobile is in development but doesn’t seem to be quite there yet either in a test from We Deliver Elephants blog. Both browsers could potentially be ’sitting’ on proprietary OSs just as with opensource browsers on pcs. So is this a case of replicating a problem that existed with pc browsing - possibly except it is unlikely that your IT department is responsible for either your choice of mobile and/or what web browsers you choose to use on them.

This entry was posted on 31/08/2008 at 03:31 pm and is filed under mobsessed, web design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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