may the force be with you

Nokia has released the source code of its S60 WebKit, the core rendering component utilized by the company's web browser for mobile devices. The S60 WebKit is based on the WebCore HTML rendering framework used in Apple's Safari web browser, which is in turn based on the KHTML component used by the Linux-based Konqueror web browser. The S60 WebKit provides a number of unique features that improve the browsing experience on portable devices with small screens, particularly mobile phones. The most notable unique feature of the S60 WebKit is the page overview mode, which enables users to select which part of a page is shown on the screen using a miniature view of the page. The S60 WebKit provides extensive support for CSS, XHTML, SVG, and Javascript, making it one of the few mobile phone web browsers capable of supporting AJAX web applications. The S60 WebKit is also modular and extensible, with support for plug-ins that provide additional functionality like Flash playback.

Although it is already available for a variety of Nokia phones, the company hopes that source code availability will enable other companies to adopt the S60 WebKit as well. Released under the highly permissive BSD license, the S60 WebKit can now be extended and redistributed in almost any context, and companies are now free to build their own custom browsers with S60 WebKit components. By making the S60 WebKit the industry standard for mobile phone web browsing, Nokia could significantly reduce the barriers associated with making web pages usable on mobile devices. According to Nokia representative Lee Epting, the project will increase consistency and minimize market fragmentation:

"This initiative will attract a critical mass of open source software developers to build a consistent, web browser engine as the clearest path to minimize fragmentation in the mobile browser market," said Lee Epting, vice president of Nokia's global software developer support program, Forum Nokia. "With nearly 100 million smartphones deployed worldwide, a common open source solution driving mobile web browser consistency will deliver on the long-awaited promise of full-web browsing and a true web experience for smartphone users around the globe."

Nokia is no stranger to open source, as the company's Linux-based Nokia 770 web tablet uses open source extensively. The power and scalability of WebKit-based browsers and the highly permissive license under which the S60 WebKit source code is available make it a good choice for companies that want to add mobile web browsing to their devices. I think it will be particularly interesting to see how this affects Opera, whose revenue primarily comes from distribution of its own virtually ubiquitous embedded browser. At present, Opera's offerings are available for a much wider selection of platforms and hardware, ranging from mobile phones to Nintendo's handheld gaming system. Opera is even available on Nokia's own 770 handheld. Opera recently stopped including ad banners in the free version of their web browser for desktop computers. The availability of S60 WebKit source code could compel Opera to make additional changes to their business model at some point in the future.

Available from the S60 WebKit version control system, the source code includes the core S60 WebKit system as well as a special memory management component designed for mobile phones, and a user interface reference implementation called Reindeer. Additional information is available from the official WebKit site.

source:http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060525-6918.html

# posted by dark master : 5/26/2006 10:09:00 AM