Last month, we highlighted how mobile device platform providers, such as Symbian and PalmSource, often turn to third parties for Web browsing solutions (see Third Parties Dominate Handheld Browser Market).

PalmSource this week turned to ACCESS to supply its NetFront Browser Engine as the basis of its new Web Browser 3.0 for the next-generation Palm operating system, Cobalt. NetFront is by far the most popular embedded browser; found in over 139 million devices, including handhelds and smartphones.

The platform developers Chief Products Officer Larry Slotnick said "By extending the partnership with ACCESS, we believe that PalmSource will be able to bring the latest mobile Internet browsing technologies to our standard platform Web browser, speeding time to market for Palm OS licensees looking to create new classes of connected mobile devices."

According to the companies, the NetFront Browser Engine brings a host of new rendering technologies to PalmSource Web Browser 3.0, including Smart-Fit Rendering, a technology that intelligently renders Web pages to fit the narrow screen widths of mobile devices—eliminating the need for horizontal scrolling—as well as Rapid-Render, a progressive rendering technology that speeds page rendering. It also supports the latest Internet standards, including HTML 4.01, XHTML Mobile Profile, and Compact HTML, as well as multimedia plug-ins. There is also multi-window browsing, drag-scrolling and off-line browsing.

In related news, ACCESS released a Professional edition of its mobile browsers for the Symbian-based Nokia Series 60 smartphone platform, by far the most popular in the world. In addition, ACCESS competitor Opera's mobile browser will be built into the UIQ interface, another Symbian platform used by Sony Ericsson for its P800 and P900 series mobile handsets and some smartphones from other vendors.