Skyfire, the makers of the exact-same PC-like browser for mobile devices, launched their beta in the UK and announced new updates aimed at making the browser easier to get, share and enjoy as the company readies the browser for general availability.
Bringing the beta to the UK
"We are pleased to bring the Skyfire browsing experience to the UK," said Skyfire CEO Nitin Bhandari. "Consumers in the UK have been promised the ‘real web' on their phone ‘real fast' only to be disappointed by slow rendering, no Flash support, error messages, watered down WAP pages or second-rate mobile versions of their favorite site. Skyfire has remedied those ills at a speed not seen before on the mobile platform. By extending the PC web experience to mobile phones, we are fundamentally changing the way people use their phones. Our US and Canadian beta users can attest to that and now the UK has the same opportunity to get the PC web on the go."
Since launching their overwhelmingly popular beta in the US, Skyfire has broken down the two primary barriers for Internet adoption on smartphones - speed and user experience. Skyfire users do not have to change their web browsing behavior on their mobile phones because Skyfire allows them to access the same content, and interact with that content, exactly as they do on their PC. When users load their favorite sites, they will not encounter unrecognizable content, unfamiliar page layouts, or missing content, like they do with other mobile browsers. Skyfire is also the fastest loading mobile browser on the market.
"We are fully committed to user experience and speed. In fact, so much so that we have opened a data center in the UK to ensure that consumers there have the best Skyfire performance and experience. We've also customized the Skyfire start pages of for the UK consumer to include their most popular websites like the BBC, Bebo, eBay.co.uk, and Amazon.co.uk." said Bhandari. "Prior to launching in the UK, we ensured that Skyfire runs on the most popular Nokia E or N Series phones that are so prevalent in the UK. We're excited to give these UK Nokia users an iPhone-like browsing experience, but even better with Flash supported and unmatched speeds."
Simple download and optional registration
In September, the company opened their beta program, and now Skyfire has eliminated the need to register to obtain the beta. Now, consumers in the US, Canada and UK can just point their existing mobile browsers to http://get.skyfire.com, and Skyfire detects the device and provides the installer automatically on their phone. From a PC browser, they go to get.skyfire.com to send the download to their phone or sideload via their PC. Once installed, consumers can create an optional Skyfire account so they save their bookmarks and history when they change phones.
Skyfire runs on more phones, including VGA
The newest version of Skyfire Beta 0.8.5 supports VGA and WM 6.1 for Windows Mobile. This means that Skyfire now runs on popular new Windows Mobile phones such as the Palm Pro, Palm 800W, HTC Touch Pro, HTC Touch Diamond, HTC/AT&T Fuze.
Skyfire also runs on more Nokia N or E Series phones, including the N96 and N79. These are added to the list of previously supported Nokia phones: E61, E61i, E62, E71, N73, N75, N76, N78, N81, N82, N85 and N95 phones.
All the latest Skyfire features for Nokia N or E Series phones
Now Nokia Symbian S60 (3rd edition) users have the new Skyfire features and improvements such as the Super Bar, video sharing and faster connectivity, all which were previously available for Windows Mobile users in the Beta 0.8 version. See release notes for specifics: http://www.skyfire.com/users/get-started/
"Our main objective with our latest releases was to make it as simple as possible to enjoy the full Internet on your phone. We added new device support, made it easier to download, and added new features that take advantage of the PC web on your phone," said Nitin Bhandari CEO and Co-founder of Skyfire. "All of this moves us closer to general availability and nothing rallies us toward that goal as the feedback from our enthusiast beta community."
About Skyfire
Skyfire is the creator of the Skyfire mobile browser, which extends the PC Web to mobile phones so users can experience the mobile Web exactly like they do on their PCs. The company was founded in 2006 by Nitin Bhandari and Erik Swenson, who serve as CEO and CTO, respectively. Skyfire is backed by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Trinity Ventures and Matrix Partners.