Samsung is gunning for Safari and Chrome with its own web browser for the Samsung Galaxy line-up, reports say. The Electronic Times in Korea reports Samsung is developing its own WebKit browser for mobile devices.
Samsung has advertised for WebKit developers with knowledge of browsers to work at the Advanced Software Platform Lab at Samsung's US research and development centre in Silicon Valley.
WebKit is an open-source browser engine, which also powers Safari -- the default browser on Apple mobile devices -- and Chrome, Google's browser.
Here in Britain, the iPhone and BlackBerry browsers are the most popular mobile browsers, reflecting how popular BlackBerrys still are here, with Android's stock software coming in third. Third-party efforts such as Opera have a negligible share of the UK browser market, according to StatCounter -- although Opera is the most popular mobile browser worldwide, just edging Android.
With so many phone owners seemingly happy to use the default browser on their blower, Samsung may want to encourage Galaxy owners to use an own-brand browser. Because the Android experience is broadly the same across every phone, it's important for companies manufacturing Android phones to differentiate their kit -- an own-brand browser that's significantly better than the default option sounds like another good way to do that.
Chrome launched for mobile devices back in February. You can now use Chrome on your Apple iPhone or iPad as well as on Android phones and tablets. If you use Chrome on your computer or laptop, your passwords, bookmarks and history are shared across computers and mobile devices.
What browser do you use on your phone, and why? What features would appear in your ideal browser? Tell me your thoughts in the comments or on our Facebook page.
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Comments 27
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anonymous 24 September, 2012 13:32
I use Google chrome as you can just pick it up and it works, in addition to this you can have a chrome to phone app on your browser which send the link you had on the pc to the phone and just works thanks.
anonymous 24 September, 2012 14:20
Oh how bad Samsung wants to be Apple?
They copy iPhone, iPod, now announced iTunes competition, iPod products, own browser, etc.
anonymous 24 September, 2012 14:49
@anonymous 14:20 - exactly! haha.
all the android fan boys complain and moan about all these things apple do but in the end, deep down, samsung just really want to be apple!
the list goes on and on, now a "own brand" web browser..oh dear. apple don't even have to do anything and samsung are getting worried.
oh well, at least they have plastic phones..phahaha.
anonymous 24 September, 2012 15:12
So every company who creates their own browser wants to be like Apple? Why?
This has nothing to do with Apple - it is about differentiating themselves from other Android devices running stock Android Browsers. The stock Android browser emits faeces from a great height onto iOS Safari, if they wanted to compete with Apple they would just leave the browser as is.
Apple fan boy commenter's like the two above can go play on the M25 for all I care - if they can find it that is!
anonymous 24 September, 2012 15:31
@anonymous 15:12
calm down mate, just cos you've got a plastic phone no need to get stressy.
anonymous 24 September, 2012 15:32
@anonymous
no. no one wants to be in anything. Samsung is another participate-in-everything type company like microsoft,apple,google,sony,etc. They just want to be in a new world and compete with other stuff. and besides,my aunt's old nokia is better than an iphone. even back in the early 2000s there were phones with removable storage and not even apple now has that.
anonymous 24 September, 2012 15:35
plastic phones? oh right.
sit down samsung.
anonymous 24 September, 2012 15:38
Why would they need to have their own browser? I can't see the effort being worth it in the long run, use chrome as default and everyone will be happy...
anonymous 24 September, 2012 15:45
I just love the Opera browser when using my phone. Its speedy and uses compression tech to enable this nimble ability it possesses. In the future, any decent smart TV ought to have Opera browser integrated in its hardware, that's just my heartfelt opinion.
anonymous 24 September, 2012 15:47
as long as it's not made out of plastic like samsungs phones then we'll be alright.
anonymous 24 September, 2012 15:54
I use chrome, as do most people I know whether its on Apple or Android handsets
anonymous 24 September, 2012 15:56
That plastic phone has more technology than that icrap!
anonymous 24 September, 2012 16:34
I use chrome because it has a simple user friendly interface. I've tried firefox, safari and androids browser but google chrome feels better. It's hard to imagine samsung creating a browser to top it or even exist in the same market.
anonymous 24 September, 2012 16:34
Seriously all that can be said is "plastic phones" and yet those plastic phones are stronger than apples metal phones, drop tests have proved that, drop iphone 4s it will crack but the samsung s2 wouldnt.
damien2501 24 September, 2012 18:36
If I had a crappy plastic pebble shaped piece of crap I wouldn't mind dropping it either. I wanna buy a premium product not cheap disposable plastic. Samsung have basically improved their profit margin by using cheap materials and have got fanboys loving it. That's actually quite an achievement
anonymous 24 September, 2012 19:03
There chimes in damien2501 and the other mindless Apple fanboys that would buy my excrement if it had an Apple logo on it and an advert that referred to it as the iTurd. The article is about Samsung and it wanting to differentiate itself with its browser. Don't hear you complaining about when Apple entered the music business, or the phone business or the tablet business, all of which already had a lot of players in the market.
Sit down you fanboys.
anonymous 24 September, 2012 19:06
The amount of unrelated content in this comment box is too damn high
Firstly, what Apple's browser has any thing to do with Samsung is creating a new browser
Secondly, what plastic has anything to do with this article
Thirdly, seriously, what Apple has anything to so with this discussion
And lastly, well, this comment...
anonymous 24 September, 2012 20:01
@damien2501 there you go again. Yawn! So how will the iphone5 handle little bumps? Il tell you, it will scratch very easily and look like crap after not long at all thats if it dont come out the box allready scratched LOL tut tut crapple what poor quality control. Where as my beautiful s3 will not scratch easily, plastic unlike alloydont scratch easy its an amazing material that is very versitile.
Its seems like the only good point you had was build quality and now you havent even got that! lmfao
S3 BABY ALL THE WAY
anonymous 24 September, 2012 20:07
Does Your New iPhone 5 Scratch Easily?
Seems like there is a bit of a problem in Apples design. Shock horror!
Damien maybe you should hold off from buying yours if you haven't already. Think it might be worth the wait for Apple to redesign the case and employ new engineers to sort out the maps.
anonymous 24 September, 2012 20:47
Can you just focus on washing machine and tv!!!!!!!!!!! Hahahahahahahahahahaha
anonymous 24 September, 2012 21:01
@anonymous20:07 ahh poor damien, always getting slammed for his stupid comments. LOL
anonymous 25 September, 2012 02:33
I am regretfully a bit biased towards Apple, but as someone else mentioned, people never said anything about apple entering the music, phone, tablet and tv markets, which Samsung were in before apple. so does that mean Apple want to be Samsung?
iam a wp7 25 September, 2012 03:43
Chrome is the perfect browser. Samsung will have to do a lot to beat it. It will turn out like Samsungs chatOn app which nobody uses.
anonymous 25 September, 2012 07:20
As for the browser I agree with most other com enters Damien McFerraon here, Samsung will find it hard to better chrome let alone the stock android browser.
As for the thread comments. On the subject of iScratch I seem to remember CNET being unduly harsh to the Galaxy Nexus on a volume bug that had a fix rolled out within the week. CNET gave 1 star to the phone only later to revise it due to a mass of complaints, especially when compared to the iPhone 4 antennae issue that received an initial 5 star review when a rubber band was the fix given out by Apple.
With that in mind and seeing that CNET.com are aware of the out of the box scratch problems and proneness of the aluminium over steel to become scuffed, why is this not reflected in the CNET iPhone 5 review? All that can be found is:
"and so far it's held up to the rigours of everyday life without picking up any scratches."
CNET you wonder why commenters cry biased all to often.
amit.s 25 September, 2012 15:53
Samsung may try to encourage Galaxy users to use its own browser. As android devices was leading with 24.4% market share in August this year, followed by default browser in iPhone with 20.81% share and Opera with 19.34%. Android, iPhone and Opera combined accounts for 65% of the global mobile browser market share.
http://www.dazeinfo.com/2012/09/25/will-samsung-dump-chrome-from-mobile-devices-for-its-own-browser/
Rich Trenholm 25 September, 2012 15:57
Thanks for the comment, anonymous. Allow me to straighten a few things out about our reviews.
Firstly: "CNET gave 1 star to the phone only later to revise it due to a mass of complaints"
That's not strictly accurate: we revised the score because the problem was fixed, not because f a few complaints. Complaints from people who disagree with our reviews never alter our review scores -- we stand by our conclusions because we draw those conclusions with great care.
Our scores are based on our experience of using any product - that's why we think they're worthy of your trust. We're not going to add something to our review just because we read about it on some blog; but we do look for issues people are talking about and test accordingly, -- and as you note, we say "so far it's held up to the rigours of everyday life without picking up any scratches". So far. If we start to pick up scratches, we'll revise the review accordingly.
Hope that clears a few things up
anonymous 2 October, 2012 19:00
The Samsung Galaxy Note 2 kicks ass on the iPhone5! Not only can you screenshot, but you can "record" your screen, along with voice.. make presentations, etc. You can even "photoshop" crop images out of webpages and save to a file.. or even make a collage. Voice recognition and handwriting recognition.
And iPhone STILL doesn't have expandable memory. Note2 has 16gb internal, and up to 32gb micro sd.
And how 'bout video playback? Can iPhone play avi, wmv, mpg, "and" mp4? Not a chance! iPhone can only play "Apple supported media files". LoL! Samsung can even play "raw" avi files.
Nope... would take a Samsung over iPhone anyday!
As for browsers... I prefer Opera. I see the Note2 "doesn't" have Adobe Flash.. but neither does iPhone. I hope that doesn't limit browsing or youtube viewing, or I'll be patiently awaiting a release from Opera.