There is a war brewing on the small screen. While the web browser on the desktop has become almost entirely Microsoft turf, small screens - personal digital assistants and mobile phones - are open territory and players are fast moving in.
In the past, web browsing on a PDA meant web clipping - truncating content to short text snippets in order to save bandwidth and keep access rates low. Then there was WAP browsing which was as tedious because of the bandwidth limitations with GSM using high-speed circuit-switched data. With GPRS, however, WAP browsing is much faster but does not give one the same fulfilment as browsing the real Web.
Now, however, we are getting close to the day when we can surf the real internet from a PDA instead of some light version of the internet.
The free Microsoft Pocket Internet Explorer web browser on Pocket PCs is a 'lite' version of the desktop product and the performance is just as 'lite'. Browsing speeds do not match other microbrowsers in the market, such as Handspring's Blazer 2.0 and Opera 7.
Its advantage is, just like the desktop version and all things Microsoft, it is included with the operating system and therefore people use it. It is also a familiar interface. My main problem with IE is it is glitchy. I have not checked on the latest version on Windows Mobile 2003 but the 2002 version was not stable on my xDA, causing the machine to hang, requiring a hard reboot.
If you own a Handspring Treo, you already will know about the Blazer browser. It is the first and still the best browser for Palm-based devices. You can download it for US$19.95 off the Handspring.com website.