Microsoft's New Mobile Browser Upclose

Microsoft will soon be ready to release its new mobile browser, but for now here are a few details about Internet Explorer 6 for Windows Mobile.

The biggest benefit will be that any page that renders properly in IE 6 on the PC should do just fine on Windows Mobile.

The current version of mobile Internet Explorer, seen here, leaves a lot to be desired. A new version, based on the same rendering engine as Internet Explorer 6 for the PC, promises Flash support and other improvements.

The browser runs fine on Windows Mobile Standard (a non-touch-screen device). The browser makes good use of a D-pad controller to go from link to link, but it's still not as elegant as on a touch screen.

Navigation may be better on the iPhone, but IE 6 will have some advantages, such as full Flash support.

"The market today is really at 'Can I see a page?' Very quickly we're getting to 'Can I do something?'" he said. "That's where we will really shine."

Another interesting option on IE 6 is the ability to quickly shift from a site's mobile page to its standard desktop version. Just because IE 6 can show the full site, doesn't mean that's always what people want. It's particularly true in Europe where even so-called "unlimited" data plans typically have data caps that can easily be reached by loading a lot of standard Web pages. IE 6 toggles between mobile and standard Web pages by sending a different user agent, depending on which page type a user wants to see.