In a boon for Open Source software, Nokia have announced that users will soon be able to browse the web using a browser based on KDE’s Konqueror and Apple Safari browsers. Apple choose the KDE browser core (KHTML) for their Safari browser for it’s clean design, speed and standards (“Rich Web browsing experience” in Nokia speak). That same reasoning is behind the decision to create a smart phone browser for Nokia phones. The core of the browsers is Open Source, indicating that the base Operating System is not the only place Open Source has on smart phones. The new browser will be available for all Series 60 phones and is due in the first half of 2006. This isn’t limited to just Nokia phones as the series 60 Symbian Operating System is used by many manufacturers and the fact that the code is Open Source means it can be used by any of them.
It will be interesting to see what Opera makes of this as they are currently the mobile browser champions.
