Differences Between Mobile Devices (SAP Library

Differences Between Mobile Devices

The differences between devices can be split into the following categories:

Size of the display field
Input method
Markup language
Browser variant

Even when you use the standardized language WML, the differences are so great that you need to create different formatting for the page for different devices, to optimize display. The following sections list the differences in more detail:

Categories

Size of the display field

PDA or Smartphone
PDA or Smartphone with VGA/4 format – such as pocket PC, Palm (similar to VGA/4)
Telephones with a small screen

Input method

Keypad
On-screen input using keyboard or handwriting recognition – for example, pocket PC, Palm
Telephone keypad

Markup language

HTML 3.2 – for example, pocket PC
Restricted version of HTML – for example, Palm, i-mode, Mobile Explorer
WML (>=Version 1.1)

Browser variant

WAP 1.0
WAP 1.1 – Nokia
WAP 1.1 – Openwave Browser
WAP 1.1 – Ericsson
WAP 1,2
WAP browser on PDAs (EZOS, Materna, WAPMan, and so on)

Note

The differences in the display of an Internet service depend not only on the browser variant. The same browser on different devices displays the Internet service differently.

Other differences

Color display capability (color, grayscale, black and white)

Graphic formats