BlackBerry 10 is Going to Have the Best Web Browser of Any Mobile Platform
techvibes.com
techvibes.com
It's over for them.
As for the consumer market, who doesn't love seeing new ways to do things? Andriod and Iphone are old and boring now, and Windows Phone 8 is not my cup of tea. (Oh, just remembered firefox OS. Is that a thing still?)
Why? Blackberry's grip on the corporate market was destroyed by execs coming to work with their iPhones and demanding that IT depts connect them to the corporate infrastructure.
Remember, IT works for the business - not the other way around.
In particular, Yahoo!'s IT organization kept Blackberry's as the Mobile Platform of choice, for a company whose major future growth is going to come from Mobile Consumer usage - far longer than it ever should have.
Eventually, though, somebody gets around to knocking heads, and IT typically falls in line...
But it's all hot air, or more precisely, vaporware. It's not even on the market. And with RIM's track record, I'm not holding out for hope.
* By proxy of Techvibes, which appears to be one of those tech "journalism" outfits that writes articles per what their hiring vendors tell them to.
As mentioned in the video one of the neatest aspects of the browser is the fact that the chrome itself is written in HTML/JS. So the animations, transitions etc are all done by WebKit. The BlackBerry browser includes support for remote inspecting which meant not only could we host the chrome on our desktop while developing, but we could debug it from a WebKit browser on our desktop, all while it was running on the device. When you make a web application for BlackBerry10 it will be on top of the WebWorks platform which sits on top of the same HTML Runtime that the browser is using which aligned rim's interests to make sure that web applications work well.
For the curious a much more in depth look at the browser and how it was made was shown at this BlackBerryJam session: http://hosting.desire2learncapture.com/RIM/1/watch/50.aspx
Disclaimer: I am part of the WebKit team at RIM.
Disclaimer: I am part of the WebKit team at RIM these opinions are my own
Why, as an end user, would I ever care about this? All this says to me is that the part of the browser which should be fast and get out of the way is written in an abstraction layer with significant overhead (compared to the alternative, native code), which - to me - means using more RAM and CPU, increasing the cost or decreasing the performance of the device.
As a tech demo, I think it's a neat idea. But as a "one of the neatest aspects" of a commercial product, I'm not inclined to be interested in the rest of the app.
As for overhead the browser team has always concerned itself with keeping its footprint down both in memory and cpu and by using JS+HTML our total overhead was actually reduced compared to running another framework along side WebKit just for the Chrome. Checkout the above second video for more in depth presentation on this.
Disclaimer: I am part of the WebKit team at RIM these opinions are my own
They had a nice web browser in their Playbooks, but it was impossible to use if you wanted to provide an "app" to wrap your spiffy "HTML5" website.
I assume you meant that sarcastically, as in "look how BlackBerry are killing off developer interest in their own platform"? Regardless of sarcasm or not, this is the best play RIM has - to use an existing platform and not rely on people developing specifically for them. That's the only hope for the underdog platforms (i.e., everyone except for Android and iOS).
People care about the user experience, the ecosystem (read: apps, for now), integration, trust, and the "wow" factor.
Spitting in the wind, though, I suppose.
Looking at it from the perspective of "so what if the browser is standards compliant, users don't care about benchmarks" is a bit short sighted since it's not just about the browser, it's about the foundation of the phone's ecosystem.
...it seems that they are running through the woods without a map (AGAIN!) right now, and it really doesn't matter how fast they can run or climb trees if they don't know where they're going
[EDIT: added what's next] my 2 cents for RIM: throw some money at Xamarin (http://xamarin.com) to make BB a target for their app development platform... putting your eggs in the multiplatform basket would seem like the only sensible decision now that your basket is hosed / on fire, and enterprise devs that would be more inclined to target BB will probably prefer C#...
The reason the iPhone is so popular is because 1) people are excited about it 2) great native apps make people excited because they do useful or fun things quickly 3) the iPhone is part of a rich ecosystem with services for music and apps. The iPhone ecosystem includes cloud and desktop integration along with support from the top rated e-commerce site as well as local support with award winner retail stores. That great customer service matters a lot to mobile phone customers who often expect a lot from their phones. With BlackBerry you get a phone from a carrier which has a poorly trained sales staff which cannot help you and often does not care. If I have an issue with my iPhone I can go into a nearby Apple Store and have my issues resolved quickly, and if necessary, they give me replacement hardware. And BlackBerry is putting out a better web browser? Better than what? Better than the poor browser they had previously I suppose. Apple has had a great browser from the beginning. BlackBerry does not get it. And if they want to catch up they need to do more than tweak their system. There should be an entire ecosystem built around it, but it is already too late. Android is already eating up all the space which Apple has not and Windows Phone is scrounging for scraps. Very little will be left for BlackBerry. They never innovated after they reached their peak. That's how the mighty fall. I hope Apple keeps innovating. I think they are due to push it this coming year. More integration between the iPhone with other aspects of our lives from TV to our cars would be great and we've already seen rumors that is coming.
Converting a mobile webapp to BB10 to native app takes merely few hours. BB10 supports Phonegap out of the box (their dev tools have simulator for it). They have their own version of something very similar to Phonegap but a little richer. You can port any Phonegap app to BB10 and use their JS API's for deeper integration.
BB10 is RIM betting on HTML5 for native apps as well. If they can optimize the experience nearly as good as native Java apps - this could be the next tide. You gotta look at the future where developing for 5-6 platforms would be a pain. Microsoft is betting on similar approach for Windows 8.
Win is at the next tide - not the one that Apple rode 5 years ago.
Native apps are much nicer and easier to code, regardless of the platform. And don't even get me started on the mess that is trying to use JS frameworks such as Jquery mobile to actually do something useful. Such as facebook or twitter integration.
Cross platform app development is a good ideal but none of the current platforms can do it in a way that isn't a horrendous pain.
Blackberry doesn't have a choice. They're in a tough spot. They need to "skip" a generation, if they have any hope of survival.
Things are moving toward web/html5 tech and that is the future. Not now, but in a few years. All of the direct-hardware-access stuff is being worked on right now.
Even now, you can build metro/Windows 8 apps using html5. There's Firefox OS. WebOS is barely alive, but still kicking.
And, of course, there's the simple argument that the most important and popular app on both iOS and Android is the web browser.
I really hope their work lasts much longer than RIM.
[1] That's not fair, it's a JIT thing but then again you can have full other engines on Android if you like (see: Chrome for Android).
I don't think having the best web browser is going to do much beyond making life a little easier for early adpoters.
I still believe in the power of the open web over closed ecosystems, despite the billions Apple makes from their App Store. I'm hopeful that the open web will win on the phone, just as it has begun to win on the desktop. And in that world, it won't matter what OS you run, as long as your phone has a competent browser. Sounds like BB10 will have a very competent browser.
That's not to say I believe RIM can pull out of this nosedive, but at least they're making moves in the right directions, for the first time in years (I think; I haven't seen anything else from them that makes me think they understand the new reality of the mobile landscape).