Microsoft will soon launch Internet Explorer Mobile 6 and this will certainly bring some major changes in the company's approach to the mobile Web. Microsoft has recently begun to release details about the browser, as well as an application emulator, to give a clearer picture of what users can expect. Unfortunately, the company hasn't released any public videos of the browser, as only OEM partners that sign a non-disclosure agreement can get them. As an important feature, users will be able to display standard Web pages, including Adobe Flash content.

 

This move comes in response to Apple's success with the iPhone and its Safari Web browser. However, IE Mobile 6 is already being criticized by some as supporting fewer Web standards than the latest desktop browser, Internet Explorer 7. In addition, it requires some muscular hardware resources: 128MB of RAM, and a 400MHz processor. The first release of the browser will be on phones with mobile operator China Mobile, in China, in late 2009. Basically, IE Mobile 6 combines elements of IE 6 and 7, and of IE 8, which is now in beta test.

 

In related news, the world's fifth most popular web browser, Opera, released a new security and stability version, 9.63. Among the new features, we can find an option to close a tab by double-clicking, enhanced mail, news and chat and the removal of several previous abilities which exposed Opera's memory or allowed arbitrary code to be run. Opera 9.63 is available for download on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, QNX, and BeOS. As for Microsoft's IE Mobile 6, it remains to be seen if the browser will take a top spot on the smartphone browsers' market, as the competition is fierce and the competitors are a handful of successful companies.