June 27, 2005
Developer case study:
Opera Software, web browsing for the Sony Ericsson P910 smartphone

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Opera Software, developer of web browsing software for mobile devices, outlines how they enhanced their browser to fit the needs of the Sony Ericsson P910 smartphone.

The P910 version of the Opera browser was a continuation of existing versions for both the P800 and P900, and combined with Opera Software's extensive experience of Symbian OS and UIQ. Haakon states,

"The delivery of the Opera browser for the P910 smartphone was a model project, with a short time schedule and high predictability."

Opera Software presents some of the technical challenges that are specific to UIQ/Symbian OS phones and subsequently discusses the issues that need to be resolved to make a successful desktop web browser product available and usable for mobile phone users in the context of the Sony Ericsson P910 smartphone.

Technical challenges in developing web browsers for mobile devices

System components and libraries
Any web browser is likely to be one of the most demanding applications for a mobile phone as it utilizes most of the system's components and libraries, i.e. networking protocols, image libraries, font handling and drawing primitives. Given Opera Software's long history with Symbian, most of this work had already been addressed and resolved when they ported the browser software to the Symbian OS platform.

Delayed actions
Another issue is that web sites often use several mechanisms to get delayed actions after the page has been initially loaded and displayed. Examples of this are animations, web page automatic refresh and scripting effects. Using active objects or timers are normally the most efficient way of programming or triggering these effects. However, the use of periodical timers may have a detrimental effect on the battery life of the phone, and hence the code needs to automatically put the browser in sleeping mode once the browser is no longer the foreground application.

Developing for the Sony Ericsson P910 smartphone

As a multi-platform application, it was not possible for the Opera browser to completely follow the P910 smartphone recommended way of handling languages and have two sets of string files.

"The most time-consuming aspect of the development for the P910 smartphone turned out to be the localization of the Opera browser," describes Haakon, "The localization logistics and testing were more extensive than we expected."

On the P910, the Opera browser is used for rendering HTML e-mails in the mail application, and the browser engine is embedded in ROM. Whereas on the P800 and P900, the rendering of HTML e-mails is done by the e-mail application itself. The browser UI is not pre-installed on the P910, but distributed on the CD accompanying the smartphone. Hence, the localization files followed different routes and were not delivered at the same time. Opera Software had to ensure that the UI delivery matched the Opera engine delivery.

Improving browser usability
A major challenge in developing the Opera browser for mobile phones was to improve the usability of the browser experience. After all, web content is rarely made for the screen resolution of mobile phones.

Another issue is to enable functionality that has no equivalent to desktop PC input methods. An example of this is the right-clicking of items on a web page to bring up additional menus. The P910's lack of a mouse means that this must be solved differently, while maintaining usability. Opera Software solved this by introducing long-clicks on web page items which bring up the extra menu. Holding the stylus down on the same pixel for a second or two can be difficult if you happen to be in a car or on a train, so the long-clicking algorithm had to be improved to allow for unsteady stylus movement.

Summary and outlook

The delivery of the Opera web browser for the Sony Ericsson P910 smartphone was an incremental step and a natural continuation of the P800 and P900 software versions.

The maturity of UIQ 2.1 and Opera Software's experience with the platform in general ensured that the project was successfully delivered within the short time frame.

"Looking forward, Opera Software will continue to develop and innovate the Opera browser to ensure that we continue to deliver 'the best Internet experience on any device'," Haakon concludes.

More information:

• Opera Software>>
• Sony Ericsson Application Shop>>
• P910 phone specifications>>