WebKit Blues

I really cannot remember how many devices accessing the Web I have had over the years. Many of them could have been classified as "mobile" or "tablet". I think I first accessed the Web on a mobile device sometime in 1994... Using the HP 200LX palmtop equipped with an analog cellular modem hooked to an analog NMT-450 Nokia phone. The 200LX - as far as I remember - was running Lynx - a text mode Web browser. There was not much I could do with this setup at that time, but still it was an interesting experiment.

Moving forward I have very warm memories of the SimPad. It must have been some ten years ago. The SimPad was a Windows CE - powered touch tablet, with resistive touch screen and 800x600 display, quite capable machine. I used it equipped with a WiFi card to wirelessly browse the Internet at home. After some software upgrades it was running the Internet Explorer 4 - the state of the art browser at that time. Unfortunately The IE4 was quickly becoming not too limited to browse the rapidly progressing Web sites, with more and more JavaScript and other goodies, renamed later to AJAX. AJAX was a breakthrough for the Web, but killed many old browsers, moving the center of processing gravity from servers to clients.

Then there was the old faithful Compaq TC-1000. Very expensive and very capable computer. It had 1 GHz processor and three times the memory of today's iPad. Running Windows it could run a fully blown Firefox. Being somehow heavy in hands, it was otherwise a very nice machine. After the TC-1000 there was a long gap (a couple of years) awaiting the iPad.

When the iPad arrived, my first reaction could be described in one word: FAST. I really was not expecting THAT level of Web performance. Of course it lacks Flash, but otherwise I think the performance of the Internet Browser is one of the factors behind the success of the iPad. It redefined the expectations. After the iPad, suddenly my faithful BlackBerry Bold started feeling SLOW. Not to mention the Samsung Windows Mobile - based phone I had had before the Blackberry.

When I started looking at the mobile browsers more closely, I found the key to the above - average performance of some. The WebKit. The WebKit is a layout engine used by a number of Web browsers to render pages on screens. Initially used by Apple in the Safari and being open - sourced, it quickly found ways into many leading browsers, becoming the de facto synonym of SPEED. Two weeks ago I posted a note on the BlackBerry Torch, a phone I decided to buy because of UMA and WebKit technologies it supports. My expectations were high, but I was a little bit skeptical on the possible performance, knowing the Torch was powered by a relatively slow processor (624MHz as I remember). What was my surprise to see the Torch rendering pages at least as fast or even faster than the iPad.

I also did some experiments accessing the Web on the Amazon Kindle. It was the Kindle 2 at that time and later the upgraded Kindle DX. In one word - it WORKED. But the experience was far from decent. And then the Kindle 3 arrived. Roughly the same hardware. More internal memory and WiFi was not appealing enough to me to upgrade. But then I saw the Kindle 3 in action. How surprised I was to see the Web experience had been vastly improved. The browser is still monochrome and the screen refresh rate (hardware) is slow... but the rendering speed is very good. Even for quite complex Web sites. And again the WebKit is to blame for the vastly improved experience. That, combined with the free Amazon Whispernet, makes the Kindle 3 the device of choice for a number of international travelers. The 3G option in Kindle is just $50. You pay it only once. No contract (the same 3G in the iPad is $130 + monthly fees!). And it gives you worldwide Web access. With battery lasting several days even when on-line, outdoor - readable display, ultra light weight and physical keyboard, the WebKit - enabled Kindle 3 really makes a lot of sense. Of course it is not so fast and interactive as the iPad, and it has no touch interface, but sometimes the basic Web is just enough. Especially when it does not cost...

So next time you shop for a mobile device, which can access the Web, double-check if it uses WebKit. You will not be disappointed!