Nokia is taking an odd strategy toward distributing its new mobile browser — it's giving it away. Nokia is releasing the code to its Series 60 browser to the open source community, counting on third-party developers to not only adopt the browser widely but to innovate on its core technology.

According to Lee Epting, Nokia's head of development, the move is designed to spur interest in Web browsing and encourage consistency in the highly fragmented application. Browsing has been one of the most under-utilized applications in wireless data, with the original wireless application protocol browsers demonstrating slow load times, difficult navigation systems and poor rendering of even the most basic content. But many carriers have stated their intention to focus more of their data efforts on Web content rather than downloaded applications.

“If we can get to a point where we have one primary engine that runs all browsers, that's what we're aiming for,” Epting said. “We would like to see a highly consistent experience across all browsers.”

The new Series 60 browser is based on the open-source Safari browser developed by Apple. Though the browser was originally built for smartphones using Nokia's Series 60 user interface, Nokia is separating the browser from Series 60 and the Symbian OS, releasing the integration layer code that will allow other vendors to graft the browser onto their OSs and middleware. The process is easier said than done, according to other browser developers.

The Series 60 browser now will be available universally, but porting an application as sophisticated as a browser to multiple platforms takes a lot of integration work, which browser companies like Openwave and Opera are doing for their customers. Opera is also developing its own open-source Web browser for mobile.

Doug Dominiack, Openwave principal product manager, also pointed out that the Series 60 browser is a very robust browser designed to render Web pages for the high-end smartphones, not the feature phones where the majority of Web browsers are located, Dominiack said. If Nokia wants a truly consistent and ubiquitous experience, it must demonstrate the browser can scale downwards. “In terms of addressable market, the browser is rather insignificant,” Dominiack said.

Despite the two vendors' skepticism about the Series 60 browser's potential to proliferate, both lauded Nokia's attempts to draw more attention and resources to mobile browsing. John Jackson, Yankee Group wireless analyst, said browsing on the mobile phone needs all of the champions it can get right now. With carriers like Vodafone placing new emphasis on browsing as their applications revenues go to off-portal content providers, platform developers are racing to offer the most intuitive and usable solution.

“I see this as the open salvos of the next stage in browsing,” Jackson said. “The vendors are actively trying to attract innovation.”

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