BOLT Joins Browser Wars on the Mobile Front

By Eric Brown | Published Feb 19, 2009

The Brower Wars Go Mobile with Bolt

With the home computer browser wars in full swing, the fighting has been taken to the mobile front. Bitstream has entered the melee with a public beta release of BOLT — a loud, in all CAPS (yet lightweight) mobile browser full of speed and attitude.

Built with the Thunderhawk browsing technology, BOLT is the culmination of over 5 years of work. Joining the ranks of other mobile browsers like IEMobile, Opera Mobile and the built-in browser in Android won’t be an easy task, but considering Bitstream’s long standing history in the industry this may be the browser that wins the mobile wars.

Mobile Browsing with BOLT

BOLT touts a list of impressive features that include low power usage for longer browsing without charging, up to 50% faster browsing than competitors, and super-fast downloads and streaming media.

Fast Browsing: 25%-50% faster mobile desktop-style web browsing on both high-end and low-end handsets.
Flash Video: Streaming flash video capabilities.
Rendering Engine: WebKit rendering engine offers high standards compliance.
Feed Support: Support for XML, ATOM and RDF formats of RSS feed.
Script Support: Support for JavaScript and AJAX.
Multiple Screen Modes: Split screen and full screen modes for easy navigation and viewing.
Encryption: 128-bit Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption for secure access to web pages.
Spyware and Malware Protection: Server filtering to protect users from spyware and other malware.
Easy Favorites Management: Easily add and select favorites and view browsing history.

BOLT is available for nearly any mobile device that with Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP) 2.0 support that can run mobile Java (J2ME) applications, including BlackBerry devices. Considering some other browsers are device specific, BOLT may be set to take over the mobile browsing industry.

BOLT vs. BlackBerry Speed Test Video

Bitstream has entered the browser wars in a big way with BOLT, a mobile browser claiming up to 50% faster speeds than the nearest competitor (not disclosed), streaming video capabilities and a patented split-screen mode.

Will Opera, BlackBerry, or maybe even Google and FireFox answer back?