Internet Explorer 6 Mobile Browser Coming

Internet Explorer 6 Mobile browser is close to release, with the Windows Mobile Team Blog announcing the availability of emulator images of Windows Mobile 6.1.4 containing the updated browser. Even though Microsoft is finalizing IE 8 for PCs, it's only up to version IE 6 for its mobile platform, though IE8's javascript engine is backported to IE6 Mobile.

Check out the features in Pocket Internet Explorer 6 Mobile (PIE6):

Improved fidelity (support for full fidelity desktop rendering)
Layout fixes to accommodate a mobile screen (text wrap)
Enhanced Script and AJAX support (Jscript v5.7 from Internet Explorer 8)
Improved multimedia experience (Adobe Flash Lite 3.1 for Adobe Flash content)
Deeper integration with search
Enhanced cursor navigation model
Touch and gesture support - pan support
Multiple zoom levels
Easy switching between mobile / desktop versions of sites by specifying UA strings.

The question is, is this too little, too late? Several browsers have surpassed Pocket Internet Explorer to become the mobile browser of choice, including Opera Mini, which just released Opera Mini 4.2 yesterday, but also Opera Mobile 9.5, and Skyfire, which handles video streaming Flash sites such Youtube. And let's not forget the forthcoming mobile Fennec browser by Mozilla. Still, the touch and gesture support in PIE6 is a welcome addition and no doubt in response to the popularity of the Apple iPhone web browser.

You can download the emulator images from Microsoft here. If you're really good, you can pull out the emulator code, convert it to a .cab and install the browser on your Windows Mobile.