Microsoft brews microbrowser

By John Cox
Network World, 05/10/99

REDMOND, WASH. - Microsoft has just begun trials of a portable microbrowser that lets wireless smartphones access parts of the Web.

The unnamed product will ship to phone makers by June, giving Microsoft a badly needed presence in the burgeoning wireless handset market. The company faces uncharacteristically stiff competition from other software vendors, such as Symbian, that also want to sell software to connect millions of wireless phones to Internet-based services.

"The microbrowser is an attempt to give smartphone users a Microsoft experience in accessing the Web," says Jill House, a research analyst with International Data Corp. in Framingham, Mass. "Windows CE is not ready yet for this type of market: CE is still too bulky and lacks real-time features. The microbrowser is an interim way for Microsoft to get into this fast-growing market."

The next generation of wireless phones is being equipped with microprocessors, tiny screens, some extra memory, operating system software, TCP/ IP software and HTML Web browsers. Meanwhile, telcos are prepping an array of Internet-based, general and industryspecific information services, including access to corporate groupware and e-mail servers.

There are rival microbrowsers. Symbian licenses one from STNC, Ltd., a software vendor based in the U.K. Phone.com, formerly Unwired Planet, of Redwood Shores, Calif., likewise has a microbrowser, based on the Wireless Application Protocol Forum specification. Microsoft partner and wireless phone maker Qualcomm currently uses this browser but will also use the Microsoft product when it becomes available.

The Microsoft software will support the network interface, cache data locally and manage the display and input. The software will include an HTML renderer and eventually will support Extensible Markup Language, which is fast becoming the standard for representing data on Web pages.

The Microsoft browser will also include a telephony API to blend the browser functions with the core cellular phone capabilities, says Phil Holden, group product manager for Microsoft's productivity appliances division.

In most cases, the microbrowsers won't be used for PC-like Web browsing because many of the handset screens display only a few lines of text. "It's fine for certain types of things, like getting a short message or stock quotes or checking an airline reservation," says Jeff Belk, vice president of marketing for Qualcomm.