12 April 2008

The Mobile Browser War
Nokia backing out of WebKit support

Electronista reports that Nokia may be withdrawing its efforts to actively contribute to the WebKit browser engine, according to an exchange on the official developer list.

Nokia's contributed to the S60 WebKit source code, with key mobility enhancements that make WebKit easier to port to different mobile platforms, will enable reduced fragmentation in the next generation of mobile browsers, simplifying content development for the mobile web and accelerating adoption of mobile browsing by millions of smartphone users worldwide.

After noticing that the Finnish cellphone producer had been inactive for at least eight months in developing a version of the code for Symbian Series 60 phones, contributor Eric Seidel has been told by Nokia representative Bradley Morrison only that the company is closing off discussions of any outstanding bugs rather than fixing or improving code.

The company representative is not involved in the project and treated the closure of bugs as a "cleanup," according to the note. Nokia hasn't officially announced any plans to back out of its investment in the normal WebKit for Symbian S60 but said in January that it would acquire Trolltech, which gives it access to a different version of WebKit that it may use to replace the existing version used underneath the company's default web browser for recent smartphones.

Continue reading at:
.:[ electronista]:.