Mobile Emulators

DotMobi strongly encourages the use of mobile phone emulators during the development of any mobile site since they allow you to get a rough idea of how the site will look without having to purchase multiple devices or incurring data charges.

Be sure to read our guide to mobile emulators here.

Mobile Phone Emulators

The following emulators are very usful for testing mobile applications without incurring data charges.

• iPhone Simulator - bundled as part of the iPhone SDK. You'll need to purchase a Mac to run the SDK
• Android Emulator - the Android SDK includes a mobile device emulator. The Android emulator mimics all of the typical hardware and software features of a typical mobile device, except that it can not receive or place actual phone calls
• Firefox OS Simulator - An add-on for the Firefox browser which simulates Firefox OS
• Nokia Browser Simulator - this simulator simulates a generic Nokia phone and WAP gateway
• Opera Mini Simulator - simulates Opera's popular J2ME browser
• BlackBerry Simulator - multiple different BlackBerry simulators
• Yospace SmartPhone Emulator - a versatile emulator that can display multiple phone instances at the same time
• Palm Pre Emulator - the Mojo SDK from Palm include a Palm Pre Emulator. You can download the SDK for free (requires email registration)
• BREW Emulator - the BREW SDK includes a mobile device emulator. It does not however emulate a handset's hardware. The BREW application is instead compiled to native code and linked with a x86-compatible BREW runtime library.