Microsoft recently took some heat for their decision to make their revamped Internet Explorer Mobile 6 available only on new Windows Mobile handsets. With the promise of full-HTML web browsing and integrated Flash support, Internet Explorer Mobile 6 uses the desktop IE code-base to deliver a browsing experience more like that offered by Sky fire and Opera. Today, we’re hearing confirmation that the new Pocket Internet Explorer 6 will first be available in China – on the Samsung Omni a.Scott Rockford, Microsoft’s director of Windows Mobile, mobile communications business, stated that Microsoft “want to have users in [emerging markets] get their first online experience with Windows Mobile.

Our target is not to convert existing users of the competing phones like the phone or Google’s Android. The first smart phone to use the new version of Web browser from Microsoft, will be the Samsung Omni a forthcoming in China. We recall briefly that the new product will allow a good browsing experience with support for the Flash and all popular current Web standards. We want to grow faster than the market.” So, there you have it. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Mobile 6 will bring the full-HTML rendering power of Internet Explorer 6 to Windows Mobile devices in China first. A bad move for Microsoft?

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