File under 'duh': We need better mobile browsers, Microsoft's Ballmer says

By WC Staff
last updated

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sat down with the Washington Post this week and promptly told the nation's No. 6 newspaper that it will be out of the "paper" business within the next 10 years.

Hardly shocking news.

Where it gets weird is when he spoke about the mobile side of the MSFT world.

Ballmer said there still aren't enough cellphones equipped with decent Web browsers. If there's one thing the iPhone has proven, it's that "nobody wants mobile to be a separate world."

Maybe that's a sign that Redmond's finally taking mobile browsing seriously. And if anyone knows about Pocket IE's shortcomings, it's bound to be The Man himself.

And given that an in-depth study all 71 pages of it commissioned by The Associated Press shows that mainstream media may be starting to understand the importance of mobile browsing and RSS feeds (and, yes, the word iPhone appears a few times), there's hope that Microsoft could finally look to make PIE more than just a default browser and enter the same browsing league as the big boys.

WC Staff
WC Staff
2 Comments
  • MS is doing an updated PIE around September that apparently uses the desktop rendering engine,but I fear,knowing MS, they just wont get it and wont do the things that would make it an attractive successful browser, such as make it easy to use by touch alone, minimize the use of menus,make zooming intuitive and easy to use,and make the browser render fast.
    Surur
  • I will be very curious to see how MS decides to push that update out. In reality, the PIE update would be PERFECT for the dormant Windows Update control panel, which I think has even been removed on the Diamond. I am getting very tired of the apparent snail-like pace at which MS and the OEMS have gotten updates out the the end-consumer.