The world has forgotten about Google's mobile browser

September 8, 2008 · by Haavard

Over the last few days I've been reading constant references to Google's Chrome browser and how it will eventually find its way to mobile phones. This, according to some people, spells trouble for Opera, since our main source of revenue is the mobile phone market.

I am quite surprised that both journalists and industry analysts seem to have missed the fact that Google already has a mobile browser. It might not be called "Chrome", but it's using the same engine, namely Apple's WebKit. If one were to simplify this a lot, "Chrome" for mobile phones has been available for as long as Google's mobile operating system, Android, has been available.

If a mobile browser from Google would spell trouble for Opera, that should have happened several months ago!

Even Google founder Sergey Brin's comment on Chrome and Android makes this clear. However, the a lot of people seem to have read his statements in a way which makes it sound like a mobile browser from Google is big news. What he really said is that the two browser projects have been separate until now, but that they could share more code, and they could rename the Android browser to "Chrome".

How did journalists and analyst miss the part where he clearly referred to two different browser projects? How was just about every single journalists and analyst I've seen able to forget about Google's existing mobile browser? I guess I'll never know.

Chrome as a desktop browser is basically irrelevant to Opera on mobile phones. Chrome as a mobile browser already exists for all intents and purposes, and has been around for a few months already. It just hasn't been called "Chrome" so far.

In other news, Clicky still reports Opera at around 2%, up from around 1% when Chrome launched. Opera is below Chrome right now, but you never know what the future might bring.

Readers' comments 5

Left under the original article, as archived.

olli8. September 2008, 13:43
You are actually making one mistake Håvard. You are expecting reporters to know what they are writing about.. It's very rarely the case nowadays
Michael Pangopoulos9. September 2008, 13:47
"Chrome for mobile phones has been available for as long as Google's mobile operating system, Android, has been available."

Two different browsers alright, but calling Android available is an overstatement, as it still hasn't been released on a phone.
Haavard9. September 2008, 14:00
It's actually been available for download almost a year:

http://code.google.com/android/download.html

The point being that Chrome for computers is hardly the right time to worry about a mobile browser from Google, which already exists, and has for a long time.
GoogleIsMyMaster4. January 2009, 20:27
Great!

Can you send me the link to the Google browser? I want to download it for my Windows Mobile based Smartphone.
Haavard5. January 2009, 09:47
"Mobile Chrome" isn't available for Windows Mobile. It's bundled with the Android platform. Which you would have known if you had read the blog post and comments