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With mobile Web browsers, you want the right combination of speed and proper formatting for small PDA or smartphone screens. Those two goals are difficult to balance without drastically changing the meaning and feel of a Web page.

That's why PalmSource and Symbian leave it to third parties and device manufacturers to develop Web browsers for their respective handheld operating systems. For example, the largest Palm licensee, palmOne, has done a great job of keeping its own handheld customers happy with its own browser, called Web Pro.

Symbian smartphone manufacturers, more often than not, turn to Opera—well known for its desktop browsers—to satisfy their Web surfing requirements. As a result, Opera recently logged/recorded one million downloads of its Symbian browser. This achievement is even more remarkable when you take into consideration that the developer has only offered the software for two years.

The number also doesn't take into account the plethora of Symbian smartphones that actually bundle the Opera browser. These smartphones include the Nokia's 6620, 3650, 3660, 6600, N-Gage, N-Gage QD, and 7650, plus the Siemens SX1. It is also available as a free download for Sony Ericsson's P800 and P900 mobile handsets.

Why is Opera so popular with the Symbian set?

Because of a technology called Small-Screen Rendering, which displays Web pages in a way that is entirely customized to best suit a particular handheld device's screen size and resolution. This minimizes scrolling while maximizing information.

Since smartphones are far more popular in Europe and Asia than the United States, most of Opera's sales take place on those continents. Yet as more American carriers offer these devices, the company is confident it will do just as well here.

Opera Software CEO Jon S. von Tetzchner is realistic however. He said, "there's still a long way to go, but we've had a great start."

What about Microsoft?
Unlike its desktop Web browser, Internet Explorer, Microsoft's handheld browser isn't about to put other developers out of business. The Windows Mobile user community considers it to be one of the least desirable options available for surfing the Internet, even though it is free.

One Web browser that has consistently earned high marks from Windows Mobile consumers is Bitstream's ThunderHawk (see image). ThunderHawk was one of the first mobile browsers to let you view a Web page in landscape mode as well as wrap text to reduce scrolling.

Although other browsers reformat pages for quick reading, you often still have to scroll through several pages before finding the information you need. With ThunderHawk 2.0, unveiled this week, HTML Web pages purportedly look just as they would with the desktop browsers users are already familiar with. This supposedly makes it easier for people to find information.

Bitstream President & CEO Anna Chagnon said ""Our ThunderHawk development goals always focus on delivering the best user experience for browsing Web pages on mobile devices. This latest release meets our users' expectations of being able to find information fast, and read Web pages quickly on their Pocket PCs."

Thunderhawk is available as a subscription service. It costs $49.95 per year or $5.95 per month.