Definition
A microbrowser (sometimes minibrowser or mobile browser) is a web browser designed for use on a handheld device such as a PDA or mobile phone. Microbrowsers are optimised so as to display Internet content most effectively for small screens on portable devices and have small file sizes to accommodate the low memory capacity and low-bandwidth of wireless handheld devices.

Underlying technology

The microbrowser usually sets up the cellular networks itself and gets content written in XHTML Mobile Profile (WAP 2.0), or WML (WAP 1.3 which was based on HDML). WML and HDML are stripped-down formats suitable for transmission across limited bandwidth, and wireless data connection called WAP. In Japan, DoCoMo defined the i-mode service based on i-mode HTML, which is an extension of Compact HTML (C-HTML), a simple subset of HTML.

WAP 2.0 specifies XHTML Mobile Profile plus WAP CSS, subsets of the W3C's standard XHTML and CSS with minor mobile extensions.

Newer microbrowsers are full-featured Web browsers capable of HTML, WML, i-mode HTML, cHTML, CSS, ECMAScript, and plug-ins such as Macromedia Flash.

Default browsers used by major mobile phone and PDA vendors

• NetFront by ACCESS Co., Ltd.
• Nokia Series 40 Browser by Nokia.
• Novarra nWeb.
• Web Browser for S60 by Nokia.
• Obigo Browser by Obigo AB (Sweden), 100% owned by Teleca AB
• Openwave (Redwood, CA) (formerly Phone.com, formerly Unwired Planet).
• Opera Mobile by Opera Software ASA (Norway). - Capable of reading HTML and reformat for small screens
• Pocket Internet Explorer by Microsoft Inc.
• Wapaka Browser Java micro-browser by Digital Airways.
• Picsel Browser by Picsel Techologies (Scotland).
• Blazer by Palm.
• PlayStation Portable web browser by Sony
• Embider by Infraware[1]
• Safari by Apple Inc on iPhone