Opera Software, France Telecom, and Orange are exploring ways to add a browser-like home screen to mobile phones, to improve usability and to make lucrative data services more accessible. “Platform,” which is derived from Opera's mobile browser technology, replaces the handset's normally idle homescreen. This makes creating a custom UI that combines typical phone operations with access to Web-based content as easy as designing a Web page, the companies say.

Click here for larger image of Platform home screen)

The intent, according to Opera, is to position profitable, value-added operator services closer to the end user. Information from the phone's internal applications, such as messaging and calendar, can also be easily integrated within the home screen, since the development process is just like building Web pages.

Opera contends that mobile phone users repeatedly glance at their handsets — even when not in use — and especially just prior to performing tasks such as dialing. With Platform as the default screen, users will see updated online content and services whenever they check time, battery status, signal strength, new messages, missed calls, and other normal phone functions.

The experimentation is currently being done on Microsoft's Windows Mobile Smartphone and Symbian's S60 software platforms, but it seems likely to work on Linux smartphones as well. On the other hand, Opera did not include its latest speech technologies in the Linux version of its mobile browser.

 
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