MobileRoyal reports that the server-based browser, Skyfire, has now stopped offering service to clients connecting from countries other than UK, USA and Canada.

Users from other countries encounter the following notice when trying to connect:

Dear Skyfire User, As, of July 1st, 2010 Skyfire will no longer be providing service in your country for the windows mobile and symbian browser. In order to offer the best possible service level for our officially supported customers and countries , Skyfire is consolidating the countries in which it operates. We apologize for this inconvenience and hope you have enjoyed the Skyfire will work on your phone until July 1st 2010,at which time the service will be de-activated and your browser will no longer function. You can direct inquiries about this to geo@skyfire.com.

Users complaining in Skyfire’s forums were told Skyfire regret it is hard for them to provide coverage to the whole world at once, and that the rest of the world was never officially supported.

Are any of our readers affected by the move? Let us know below.

via Allaboutsymbian.com

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Skyfire has just released an updated version of their browser (version 1.1.0.13052), which brings performance improvements, better connection handling and improved mobile website browsing. 

New in the latest release is:

• Improved page load times. For sites that take a long time to load, we updated our algorithm to bring you the content much quicker.
• Improved reconnect. Skyfire will show clearly when you can start interacting with the web page in case it previously timed out and disconnected (to save battery life).
• WML support. If you are browsing to mobile sites that use the old mobile WML markup, you can now view the content.
• Improved mobile website support. Mobile.* websites are now rendered automatically as mobile with the exception of mobile.yahoo.com since it is a PC site.
• Page up/down navigation via short-key: You can use now ‘2’ and ‘8’ to easily navigate one page up or down. Great for reading articles. Now the short-key for invoking the Superbar is ‘*’. Please note that on some devices with a non-standard keyboard layout, short-keys may behave differently since this is phone specific.
• Updated Plug-ins: For Flash, Silverlight and QuickTime we have the newest versions to give you more compatibility with more sites.

The release also fixes some issues:

• Skyfire quits on startup on Windows Mobile 6.5 devices: It affected a limited number of 6.0 and 6.1 devices as well. (Fixed Issue 7369)
• Samsung Propel and Jack (AT&T): Could not uninstall Skyfire if the SIM card was missing. Fixed.

Known issues:

• Short-keys inconsistent on non-standard keyboard. On some keyboard layouts (half-qwerty, dual keyboards), the short-keys do not work as expected. (Issue 7498, 7408, 7581)

Read more at Skyfire here and download the browser by visiting get.skyfire.com from your mobile device.

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(MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA) May 27, 2009 – Today Skyfire, the makers of the samename PC-like browser for mobile devices, is announcing the launch of its 1.0 version now available for free download at get.skyfire.com. Over one million consumers have installed and used the Skyfire browser in just under five months, making it the fastest growing downloadable mobile browser in North America.

Skyfire 1.0 delivers the PC web, real fast

Skyfire remains committed to providing everything the PC web has to offer in a mobile experience with blazing fast speeds. For the first time, consumers can use their phones to watch any web video and live events, stay connected with friends, share web pages instantly, and use the full-featured PC versions of their favorite websites. Skyfire is the only mobile browser to support popular web standards and plug-ins such as Flash 10, Silverlight 2, Ajax, Javascript and more, so the rich media on websites work on phones just like the PC.

What’s new in Skyfire 1.0

Improvements specific to the Skyfire 1.0 release include enhanced navigation, zooming and interaction as well as faster launch, power optimization, and new search functionality. Having previously delivered rich media and text readability on a small screen, the focus of this latest release was helping users get to the content they want more quickly. As the new version starts-up, users can type a search or URL in the Superbar even while Skyfire is connecting in the network. After a web page loads, smooth scrolling and zooming – similar to an iPhone – helps users navigate the page more quickly. Likewise, now users can click on links on the first page load without having to zoom first.

Unique user activity – Doing things no other mobile browser can do Skyfire users are different than iPhone and Opera users because they can watch video, and tend to watch a lot of video on their phones – something not possible on other browsers. They watch video on the PC version of websites such as Hulu, but also video embedded and shared in Twitter and Facebook updates.There is also high engagement with watching live streaming events such as the Barak Obama Presidential inauguration and Summer Olympics during the beta period.

Skyfire users are active on websites that don’t work on any other mobile browser. Consistently, the top websites used on Skyfire are the top websites used on PCs – such as the full-featured Hulu, YouTube, Facebook, Myspace, Google Docs, full-featured Gmail, and professional sport leagues’ full websites. Giving a significant installed base a better browser Skyfire runs on more than 70% of the worldwide installed base of smartphones, based on figures from a March 2009 Gartner report. These include smartphone devices made by HTC, LG, Motorola, Nokia, Palm, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, TMobile, to name a few, and newer models with VGA and WVGA screen resolutions all running on Windows Mobile or Symbian platforms.

Poised for massive growth

The smartphone market is forecasted to be larger than 400M installed base by 2010, and almost 4B total mobile devices. The smartphone segment is growing even in the recessionary climate. Mobile data revenue was $32B in revenue in 2008, with a 26% ARPU growth. As a browser that delivers the PC web, Skyfire has much to gain from this growth. Additionally since Skyfire handles much of the processing work on the server-side, the browser reduces carrier bandwidth – making it not only good for consumers but mobile operators as well.

“As web content continues to include more Ajax applications, Javascript, video, Flash 10, and web pages double in complexity every 12 months, there will always be a gap between phone and PC capabilities. PC web progress will not slow down for the mobile industry to catch up,” said Bhandari. “Skyfire’s architecture keeps pace with web technologies and seamlessly bridges the gap.

Using Skyfire, consumers continue to get their PC web on their phones, no matter how complex a website.”

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