ARM is the leading provider of chips for mobile phones and apparently they are now focusing on optimizing their processors for browsers. Bob Morris, their Director of Platform Enablement has his eye on the mobile browser wars and calls them the new application framework for mobile devices. While I agree on their thinking and approach, I think it could be dangerous for ARM to take their eye off of the mobile phone OS market share numbers between Symbian, Linux Mobile (LiMo), Google Android, Windows mobile and others.
It’s really not practical to install an application for every single function that you want to perform on your mobile phone and much like on the desktop, the browser is the key to a good web experience on mobile phones. There are a plethora of options out there from Opera Mini and Mobile, Mobile Safari, Pocket IE, Skyfire and others. The beauty of a browser is that you can surf virtually any number of mobile web sites and tools from one browser.
However, there are still a number of functions that you really can’t get from your browser. Whether it’s because you need something that’s always on or for security reasons, some functions just require you to install an application to use them effectively. Since there are dozens of operating systems for mobile phones out there, application developers just cannot support them all. In order to truly make applications available for a large number of users, there will need to be many fewer overall platforms in the near future.
So what kind of applications do you really need to install on your phone?
- Phone Dialing
- Messaging Clients
- Location-Based Services
Whether you’re using a good old-fashioned cell phone or looking to use VOIP software from your phone, it needs to be always-on.
From SMS to Email and IM, who wants to actually have to check it every time you want to get your messages? This was a major limitation of IM on the first iPhone as you could only use web based IM clients.
Whether you want to get directions, share your location with friends or be able to easily search for restaurants around you, browsers just won’t cut the mustard. Besides, the web is still the Wild West with malware lurking around every turn and who wants to share their location with *every* site they surf?
For my money, these are some of the most critical functions that I look for from my mobile phone. I’m very happy to use my mobile browser for checking Facebook or Twitter, for checking the weather or looking up a movie, but when it comes to my communications, I want them in real time.
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I'm Dave and I like to share news about gadgets, gear, careers and design for a mobile world.
theregoesdave
Honestly, Dave, I would bet my money on Intel and the x86 platform becoming the standard choice for mobile devices looking forward. The Atom is just a prequel of the small, light and energy-efficient chips that the x86 guys can come up with. Plus, moving to the x86 infrastructure would enable mobile devices to utilize PC-like graphics capabilities. I’ve got an article shared somewhere on my Friendfeed from way back that talks more about this, I’ll see if I can dig it up.
Really? I was starting to put some faith in the combo of ARM with the new NVIDIA Tegra line for video acceleration. I guess I’ve just never really thought of Intel for the embedded space.
Hm, couldn’t find the article but it’s out there. Don’t think of mobile going forward as “embedded.” The iPhone is basically a UMPC. Think about the browser as the “OS,” and it gets even weirder!