Is S60 Saying Goodbye to its Webkit-based Browser?

Love it or hate it, the S60 Browser can be found on more smartphones in the world than any other browser. It was the first Webkit implementation to be so widely adopted and it played an enormous role in opening the eyes of the masses to "real web on a mobile phone". As other popular browsers such as Opera Mini and mobile Safari (also based on Webkit) have adopted the concept of displaying real web content as well, the S60 Browser has remained essentially static as far as end user experience is concerned. Today we learn that we’re not the only ones with our eyebrows raised. Eric Seidel of Webkit recently posted an open inquiry to Nokia after noticing that no one had checked in on the S60 project in over eight months. The response he received from Nokia didn’t provide any specifics, but a Nokia employee kindly closed all related bug reports and noted that if any additional cleanup was required he could be contacted. So where does that leave the S60 Browser? Obviously Nokia isn’t leaving the mobile browser game any time soon. After all, Nokia is an Internet Company now. Can we expect a new breed of browser on S60 handsets in the not-so-distant future?

[Via atmaspheric endeavors]

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Zach Epstein