iLounge

1

Something that may figure into these numbers…

A lot of WM users (me included) hack the browser to make it “appear” like IE6, in order to fool the website into allowing you to do certain things.

A lot of websites format pages differently if they think you’re using PIE (pocket internet explorer).  For example, some banking websites will not run properly.  The “appear as IE6” hack is common to a lot of basic windows-mobile hack-packages.

Posted by Dopial on December 4, 2007 at 11:50 AM (PDT)

2

Not to dispute the ie hack stuff, but what percentage of windows mobile users do that?  If it’s 50%, then that gives CE a .12 percent, which still gives the iphone some pretty significant momentum.

Posted by Jeremy on December 4, 2007 at 1:18 PM (PDT)

3

Most of the Windows Mobile users go online with Opera Mobile or even Opera Mini. That’s the advantage of WM phones/PDA’s: You can choose from thousands of programs!

Posted by geWAPpnet on December 4, 2007 at 2:32 PM (PDT)

4

Personally, I would rather use a browser that I don’t have to hack to “fool” a website. And as for the “advantage” of having thousands of programs to choose from, I would rather keep it simple and functional as with the iPhone and iPod touch. Obviously, many others agree…

Posted by RNB in Bakersfield, CA on December 4, 2007 at 2:44 PM (PDT)

5

So if “most” Windows Mobile users go online with Opera Mobile or Opera Mini, how come neither of those programs is showing up with even .01%?

The numbers might need some fine-tuning to reach 100% accuracy (like most statistics), but the results are clearly telling—iPhone users surf the web far more than those who use Windows Mobile. If you ask average users of both products, you’ll find plenty of anecdotal evidence to back this up even further.

It further drives home the point that the user interface is at least as important as the features. If a smart phone has a “feature” that the user either finds frustrating or doesn’t know how to use, is it really a feature?

Posted by BJ Nemeth on December 4, 2007 at 2:47 PM (PDT)

6

Windows CE was only a PDA and not a cell phone or smartphone until Windows CE 5.0 released in 2005. Bandwidth speed has since hindered any use of the browser until this year. Microsoft will soon release it’s new mobile browser for smartphones coded name Deepfish http://labs.live.com/deepfish/default.aspx providing a full web experience for smartphones. This will bring the smartphone browser experience up to par with the iphone browser experience.

Posted by Super2online on December 4, 2007 at 5:59 PM (PDT)

7

@Super2online:
Windows CE supported phones via both their Pcoket PC and Smartphone OS platforms as of 2002 not 2005 as you erroneously claim

Posted by dodo on December 4, 2007 at 6:11 PM (PDT)

8

I stand corrected. Just wanted to ensure viewers weren’t thinking that the CE devices had that capability since 1996.

Posted by Super2online on December 4, 2007 at 6:39 PM (PDT)

9

I sat next to a woman using her iPhone and I had visited several sites using WM6 and Opera Mini in the time it took the iPhone to load just 2 pages of Google results.
I’d say that would be the winning criteria…

Posted by Chris Matchett in London on December 5, 2007 at 12:37 AM (PDT)

10

@ RNB: Personally, I’d rather not grace websites with my clicks whose designers can’t be bothered to make it work according to standards i.e. look & work the same regardless of the browser employed.

Posted by Bad Beaver on December 5, 2007 at 2:56 AM (PDT)

11

Agreed that if Opera et al. are being used, it should show up in the stats.  Odd considering the # of Palm OS browsers out there.

I’m curious (not having played with an iPhone for more than about 10 minutes), what other applications (googlemaps etc) route via the browser?  Is the increased use of “safari mobile” simply an artifact of all mobile communications (e-mail, itunes downloads, googlemaps) using the browser as a back end to communicate with the servers?

Also, as geWAPpnet says, the ability to run whatever browser you like, and choose different ones to view different websites (not all mobile websites are created equal!) is a major advantage.  If safari mobile did EVERYTHING (including banking, java, flash video) that regular safari did, then I might consider an iPhone, but it simply does not.

The fact that PIE can be hacked to view you-tube in its undigested form (i.e. not a cut-down version that the iPhone can see) is great.  Add in streaming media via ORB, or slingplayer oh, plus being able to download and edit files on the phone, and the iPhone browser experience looks pretty pedestrian.  The ability to hook-up the phone to a laptop and use it as a modem is also pretty sweet.

So yes, maybe iPhone users do surf the web more often, but WM smartphone users are busy actually doing something with the files they’ve downloaded, rather than waiting for apple-approved limited content to download.

Posted by Dopial on December 5, 2007 at 8:07 AM (PDT)