Mobile developers who want to migrate their applications from native platforms to the Web have another tool at their disposal: WebGL, a cross-platform framework that can be used to display sophisticated 3D graphics and applications in a mobile phone browser. The technology, which is backed by the likes of Sony Ericsson and Qualcomm's (NASDAQ:QCOM), brings portability to 3D apps. Because WebGL is Web-based, developers do not have to tie their work to specific native environments and they can create cross-platform applications. While games represent an obvious use case for WebGL, the technology's backers think that it will also be used to make routine functions in a smartphone user interface much more appealing. Special report