Supporting Devices & Browsers

Supporting devices and browsers can be difficult and time consuming Every year, the industry sells hundreds of different mobile device types/variants worldwide. Mobile service providers often customize mobile browsers on their devices, creating a large number of different deployed browsers. As a rough guide, every major browser version has a lifetime of approximately 50 different device models, with various minor revisions. Since most devices don’t allow over-the-air updates, faulty devices can’t receive regular upgrades leading companies to pull them from the market and replace them with a new version. This typically includes a revised version of the browser, perhaps exacerbating the problem.

Most mobile service providers recommend supporting devices for two years, a difficult task.