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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCING THE MOBILE WEB
A presage of this change was Nokia ’ s often overlooked decision to develop a port of the WebKit web
browser to its Symbian operating system in 2005. (WebKit, the underlying engine of Apple ’ s recently
released Safari browser, had been open - sourced by the company that year.)
Nokia ’ s fi rst handsets to carry the resulting S60 Browser were extremely successful, if not entirely
because of the browser alone. The fact that most browsers supported WiFi (for fast, free network
connectivity) and that even the richest web content could be browsed quite capably (with the help
of a full - screen zoom - in/out feature) meant that many developers saw a future in which the mobile
device would become a viable fi rst - class citizen of the Web, rather than one crippled by slow
bandwidth and prohibitive Internet access.
Any lingering doubts that full mobile web access was just an esoteric dream were shattered in
2007, when Apple — a new entrant to the mobile handset business — launched its iPhone device.
Promoted as a combination of phone, music player, and Internet communicator, a large part of the
iPhone ’ s attractiveness to consumers was its ability to render desktop websites with high fi delity, and
pan and zoom through them elegantly using a multi - touch screen. The handset came bundled with
unlimited data plans from most of its launch carriers.
When fi rst launched, the iPhone did not allow third - party applications to run on it, and Apple
encouraged those who wanted to create services for the device to do so through the use of the
web browser. Although the browser could display full web pages, developers quickly realized
that users responded well to simple, effi cient user - interfaces that mimicked the device ’ s built - in
applications. Apple published guidelines for creating websites that adhered to iPhone - based user
interface conventions, but which used fully fl edged web standards like HTML and CSS. As a result,
thousands of web developers started creating iPhone - ready sites, targeted at these mobile users.
A wholehearted adoption of web technologies for mobile applications stalled somewhat with the
release of v2 of the iPhone operating system. With this release came the ability for developers to
create native applications for the platform, together with rich access to device APIs (such as motion
sensors, camera access, and geolocation) that the web browser did not provide. In the ensuing
“ gold rush, ” thousands of developers fl ocked to developing these native applications — games in
particular — that also held the opportunity for monetization through Apple ’ s newly launched App
Store. Google ’ s Android platform was also launched in 2008, and while also sporting a very capable
web browser, it encouraged developers to write native, rather than web - based, applications.
At the time of this writing, however, the mobile web is back in the ascendency. The irony is arguably
that the native application concept has been a victim of its own success: users of many different
handset platforms now expect to be given a native app experience, but the proliferation of high - end
mobile operating systems means that the costs and effort involved in developing such apps is rapidly
rising.
Developing web applications, on the other hand, offers the tempting opportunity to “ develop once,
run multiply. ” Diversity between handset types and browsers means that there is still a strong need
to create sites and designs that adapt to different browser platforms, screen sizes, and so on, but
at least there is a chance to address a wide range of handsets, from the most - capable to the least -
capable web - enabled device, with a common set of technologies and with a single development and
deployment approach. Add to this the speed with which mobile browser technology is evolving, with
which APIs are becoming richer, and with which the underlying standards are being developed, and
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