Outsource browser - opera mini / mobile

Søren Villadsen

Tags: browser, web

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Idea Closed (Closed: 01/26/2010 02:50 PM GMT)
This idea has 18 scraps

The native browser in symbian is infinitely worse than safari mobile and opera mini / mobile. I realise the 'symbian idea' isn't too fond of using other browsers but the time has come to evaluate browser performance relative to the competitors. There are several ways to go about this - but at least give the choice to choose opera mobile within symbian OS (and be forced to know about opera pre-hand). The development of the native browser can follow parallelly but for now the facts should be realised: poor browser performance is costing market share! Every 'nerd' installs it right away anyways - why not let the general public share this 'secret'. Video of opera 5 beta performance on N97: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3crXG6J-hWo
Mozilla Fennec might be considered aswell. Mozilla /is/ a strong contender in the browser business although they opposite to opera doesn't have symbian ready code as of yet. Pre-installed opera should be standard.

Posted on 11/12/2009 08:36 PM GMT , Last Modified on 01/26/2010 02:50 PM GMT

Comments (15)

Gene Ting - Nov 13, 2009

I'm not big on this one because Opera largely closed source, and that the built-in browsers are using OSS WebKit. that being said, the built-in browser does need a bit of overhauling, especially getting up to speed with some of the JavaScript/CSS support, and getting a higher score on the acid test.

Søren Villadsen - Nov 13, 2009

That's why opera is needed until the native browser is up to date! Opera Corp. is a part of symbian foundation so it should be possible to use some of their cutting edge technology in the native browser in time but in the mean time why not use the best there is? Unless they are already in on the browser development for ^3? The native browser has a poor implementation of webkit as uposed to safari. Alternatively Fennec is OSS but the symbian development seem to have halted .. and mozilla is not part of symbian foundation. What other real alternatives are out there? https://wiki.mozilla.org/Mobile/Symbian I'm not saying - use opera FINAL but just saying that something drastic have to be done to the native browser and I see outsourcing to opera as a quick and easy way to come about it in short term! On longer term (hopefully) the native browser can take over again.

William Roberts - Nov 13, 2009

It doesn't make sense for Mozilla to become a member of the Symbian Foundation (or vice versa). Both of us are Open Source Foundations with no developers to work on features of our source code, and we both rely on our communities to do the development work. Anyone with the time and enthusiasm could start reviving the Symbian Platform port of Fennec (it's the subject of another idea on this site).

Tim O - Nov 18, 2009

Mozilla does employ a number of engineers on salary to work directly on the core product and lead by example, which helps maintain momentum and continuity with the ebbs and flows of the contributor community. AIUI Symbian Foundation does not. It remains to be seen what is the best approach.

William Roberts - Nov 13, 2009

I've voted against this - I have no problem with adopting appropriate Open Source projects into the Symbian Platform (after all, that's roughly how we got Webkit), but adding proprietary source code is a really bad idea. If Opera wanted to provide a binary-only version of their code under the R&D license then we could perhaps pass it on with the development kits... I'd still rather not do that unless it fills a gap in the platform.

Ian McDonald - Nov 13, 2009

My opinion on this is that you should be able to choose your default browser like you do in Windows.

Gene Ting - Nov 13, 2009

s60v5 has this feature in Settings->Phone->Application Settings->Default Applications->Browsing Internet but it seems like app devs need to somehow publish upon install that their app is candidate to be a web content handler.

Søren Villadsen - Nov 14, 2009

@William: Opera would fill a large gap in the platform! The browser is an important app!

Gene Ting - Nov 15, 2009

a gap implies a missing function. The symbian browser and opera heavily/completely overlap and directly compete with each other. and opera doesn't do everything better than my n97, although it is admittedly better overall. i've left another post on suggestions on how to revamp symbian browser. What symbian really need to do is allow the browser to be upgradeable in the phones, but like you said - the browser is important. This has obviously not been lost to nokia in the past - providing better browsers on newer phones is intentional. The iphone and android are nokia's true competitor in the mobile space, as the only competitor before them was pie, which was a joke. I remember when i first got my n95 in 2007 and said wow this browser is good. And opera 9 never appeared on s60 then. That probably allowed nokia to sit on their laurels for a while, then real competitors started showing up, and opera 10 appeared as well. Also, just a reminder, just because opera 10 is only on symbian right now, doesn't mean it will only stay on symbian forever. That has implications on this outsourcing idea your proposing. It is probably up to individual device manufacturers to add opera as a free app, not up to symbian foundation to put it in the core.

Søren Villadsen - Nov 16, 2009

"It is probably up to individual device manufacturers to add opera as a free app, not up to symbian foundation to put it in the core." Actually makes very good sense..

andrei schlangen - Nov 18, 2009

opera mini sucks. its a POS java POS browser with no flash or dynamic content support. Any decent site is useless in opera mini.

Søren Villadsen - Nov 18, 2009

But at least it loads fairly quick!

Nishant Thomas - Nov 22, 2009

I don't fully agree on this topic, but if Opera Software is a member of Symbian Foundation I don't see any reason not to develop the symbian browser on Opera's core rendering technology. And definitely Opera's Presto Engine is really fast at rendering webpages.

Sebastian Brannstrom - Nov 27, 2009

The coming QWebKit based browser in Symbian^4 will be vastly better than the existing port of WebKit. Since Qt works all the way back to S60 3rd FP1, there is no reason why it couldn't be back ported to S^1-S^3.

K K - Dec 15, 2009

It looks pretty obvious that whoever votes against opera does not surf the net on their phone. Opera allows faster loading of web pages (try it, its five times faster), opera allows bookmarks to be backed up, by tapping top toolbar you can quickly return to top of web page. After running opera on a 5800 I never use the native browser try it and see the difference. Even after scrolling on opera and going back to native browser its like the pages are stuck and it takes more effort. Nokia have sat on their hands the last two years and are playing catch up. Fair enough if they develop a faster browser but people are voting with their wallets and moving to other phone makers. Even the stock marker has picked up on nokia flatlining and their stock has not moved in months, releasing heaps of new phones will little or no difference to the previous version on the market does not work anymore. And proof today laying off 10 % of staff does not look good at all.