Windows Mobile Internet Explorer 6 screenshots – Full HTML browsing on Windows Mobile 6.1

Now this is what we’re talking about. The mobile ecosystem is entrenched in a mobile browser war that would have all mobile phone users around the world surfing all those internets in full HTML glory, directly on their mobile phones. Regardless of computing power, data connection speed, or handset form-factor, the likes of Mozilla, Skyfire, and Opera are all vying for the premier application-spot on your handset.

So, where does that leave Windows Mobile’s built-in mobile web browser? Sort of in the dust. It’s sad, but true.

But, that’s all about to change once Microsoft goes live with the Windows Mobile Internet Explorer 6 that we’ve been expecting for months now. Back in the day, when the T-Mobile G1 (HTC Dream G1) was just a glimmer of hope in our Android-loving eyes, Microsoft unveiled their plans for Windows Mobile at a press event in Las Vegas. Windows Mobile 6.1 was just coming online as an incremental update to the tried-and-true (read: aging) Windows Mobile 6.0 platform. Among the mobile platform improvements was the enhanced Mobile Internet Explorer that actually allowed for some zooming and panning around websites – making the Pocket Internet Explorer (PIE) more tolerable.

More exciting than Windows Mobile 6.1’s official release or the enhanced Internet Explorer Mobile was the promise from Microsoft that Windows Mobile 6.1 would soon see a complete overhaul of its mobile web browser. The problem with the current Internet Explorer Mobile is that the code underlying the browser is based on Internet Explorer 4 – back in the late 1990’s. A lot has changed since the days when Windows 95 was king of the hill, but Internet Explorer Mobile was still stuck in the previous decade.

The new Internet Explorer Mobile 6 was promised to us by the end of 2008, bringing with it full HTML browsing and even integrated Silverlight support. Alas, the year is slowly coming to a close and Microsoft seems to be readying their overhauled Internet Explorer Mobile 6 for prime time. A couple screenshots of the new mobile web explorer have popped up on the web and it’s looking good. Internet Explorer Mobile 6 uses the same codebase as the desktop version of IE, making for some seriously powerful browsing with full HTML rendering capabilities. There’s no indication of any tabbed browsing (from what we can see in the screenshots), which could give competitors (ahem, Opera) the upper-hand, but there’s no telling what Microsoft has planned for PIE6 by the time it hits commercial status.

Full HTML rendering, Silverlight support (maybe Flash, too?), and tabbed browsing would give Microsoft the browsing-punch to take on the likes of Opera, Mozilla, and Skyfire. Will it happen? Stay tuned.

[Via: the::unwired]