Webmasters Gallery

Summary • The mobile world is a complicated, highly fragmented environment. The mobile value chain involves operators, device vendors and OS vendors—all having their own interests and goals that shape the device market and complicate things for us, web developers. If you read The Mobile Book¹⁵ already, this chapter is a revised and extended version of the chapter. It’s been updated with the latest figures and developments, though, and contains a few new sections.

Keywords • operators • networks • mobile value chain • device vendors • hardware • fragmented market • phone’s production cycle • global device market • OS vendors and sales • developer relations • identity management • payments.

Summary • If you’re used to the simple five-browser ecosystem that exists on the desktop, you’re in for a rough surprise in the mobile market. There are 30 mobile browsers, ranging from lousy to great. Besides, there are also proxy browsers, default browsers, downloadable ones, confusing Android ones, and of course WebViews. What do you need to know about prevailing browsers and prevailing platforms? A comprehensive overview of the browser market, worldwide market shares and ongoing developments—and a few browser stats.

Keywords • browser ecosystem • rendering engines • WebKits • WebViews • Android browsers • platforms • proxy browsers • statistics.

Summary • The most complex part of the mobile world is Android. With Android now spanning about three quarters of the smartphone market, it has a few problems and oddities that are uniquely its own. In this chapter we’ll look at Google’s wishes and actions, the reactions of the device vendors, and the complicated browser situation caused by the gradual replacement of Android WebKit by Chrome.

Keywords • differentiation • Android updates • Android WebKit • Chrome.

Summary • Mobile devices have far smaller screens than desktop/laptop computers. As a result, browser vendors had to perform some sleight of hand in order to make sure desktop-optimized websites also display decently. They split the viewport, which on desktop means the browser window, into three. What are these viewports and why do we need them? By discussing pixels, viewports, resolutions, the meta viewport, media queries, and related JavaScript events and properties, you’ll gain some insight into how mobile browsers (and web developers) deal with the fundamental problem of the small screen.

Keywords • device pixels • CSS pixels • layout viewport • visual viewport • ideal viewport • zooming • page zoom • pinch zoom • min/max-zoom • resolution • device-pixel-ratio • meta viewport • media queries • CSS/JavaScript • events.

Summary • There are a few CSS declarations that are harder to implement in mobile browsers than in desktop ones. Some, such as position: fixed, are dependent on the viewport, but which viewport? Others may have performance issues or special interface considerations, such as overflow: auto. It’s just about time to get to the bottom of this.

Keywords • position: fixed • overflow: auto • overflow-scrolling • background-attachment • vw and vh units • :active and :hover.

Summary • Mobile devices generally use touchscreens, and support a new set of touch events to monitor user actions. At first sight, touch events seem to be roughly the same as mouse events. What are the differences? How do they work? Do we need separate events for each interaction mode, or can we merge mouse and touch into one, as Microsoft wants? It is quite likely that future new web-enabled device classes such as TVs, cars, or even fridges, will bring new interaction modes and a new set of events. How do we prepare for them? That’s exactly what this chapter is all about.

Keywords • touchcancel • gesture events • dropdown menu • drag and drop • scrolling layer • event equivalencies • merging touch and mouse • detecting interaction modes • touch event cascade • the tap action • anatomy of a click • 300 ms delay • touchLists • pointer events.

Summary • This last chapter gives you practical details about how to become a mobile web developer, or to be more precise, how to set up a device library and conduct mobile tests. Which devices do you need? How do you run tests? What would an ideal device lab look like? And what should you keep in mind in terms of the improvements of the mobile networks in the future?

Keywords • ideal device lab • acquiring and sharing devices • what and how to test • device test batches • managing updates • browser detection • JavaScript libraries • mobile networks • latency • connection speed.