Skyfire, the proxy web browser with ability to view rich media, is closing down operations in a number of countries from 1st July 2010. This change however applies only to Symbian and Windows Mobile versions.
The following notice is presented upon startup of the browser.
“Dear Skyfire User
As, of July 1st, 2010 Skyfire will
no longer be providing service
in your country for the windows
mobile and symbian browser. In
order to offer the best possible
service level for our officially
supported customers and
countries , Skyfire is
consolidating the countries in
which it operates. We apologize
for this inconvenience and hope
you have enjoyed the Skyfire
will work on your phone until
July 1st 2010,at which time the
service will be de-activated and
your browser will no longer
function. You can direct inquiries
about this to [email protected].”
Mobile Royale’s attempts to contact Skyfire to get a list of affected countries was unsuccessful due to the provided address ( geo@ ) rejecting incoming email.
So far, the list of countries that we have been able to confirm are as follows -
Australia
Ecuador
Hungary
India
Malaysia
Mexico
Pakistan
Singapore
Sri Lanka
Thailand
Skyfire, the proxy-based web browser which can handle Flash video, is reportedly tightening its belt, closing down its servers and operations in a number of countries from Thursday (1st July), according to Mobile Royale. A shutdown notice is presented to users attempting to use the browser in a number of countries, including Australia, Ecuador, Hungary, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Comments welcome if you can add to this list or shed any light on what's going on - there's no official word from Skyfire's site or blog yet.
Read on in the full article.
This is sad. I wish they could have atleast given us an option to use the browser without the compression that happens at their servers. This would have translated into slower loading of data (and more data user) on our phones, but I found that Skyfire did handle a lot of content in a better way than the Nokia Browser.
I just hope Opera does not make a similar announcement.
Thanks, I'll add new countries mentioned below into the main list (above) - if that makes sense!
same for New Zealand. Damn shame really as it's the only mobile browser I really like.
slovakia's on the list too 😞
Same in Romania. It was my browser of choice. I will stick with Opera now.
They seem to have knocked off a lot of countries. Wonder where is it working.
They're stopping support for Windows Mobile and Symbian only.
Stupid Ameican mindset strikes again. Skyfire is a Steve's (Jobs) drone now.
what a mess! this browser is cool, hopefully this works until july 1st.,,, hehehe!
skyfire 1.5.0.15495 works fine for me in germany on symbian s60 3rd. i can search google and open web pages.
Their http://www.skyfire.com/focus-geography-and-skyfire-1-0/ contains confusing mixed messages. On the one hand they say that now that v2.0 is their future, they're going to stop v1.0 and v1.5, so as to focus resources. Fair enough. They then say that v1.0 and v1.5 *will* carry on being supported, but only in certain countries!
I guess it's down to there already being Skyfire proxy server farms in those particular countries?
This is a shame really.. I always watch Live Motogp races on it whenever I'm out n about and away from my laptop.. Now there goes my full year subscription on Motogp.com coz I'm always out n about n away from my laptop.. But hey.. they only mentioned Winmo & Symbian devices.. Does that mean Android devices are fully supported everywhere?? Then I should suggest Nokia buy this company now and make Skyfire its default browser(after tweaking some improvements, of course).. c",)
Hardeep1singh wrote:Stupid Ameican mindset strikes again. Skyfire is a Steve's (Jobs) drone now.
What you are seeing is the "losing money too fast" mindset. It was inevitable that Skyfire was going to have to do something to cut costs. Other proxy browsers are barely able to make money, and then Skyfire comes around and is mostly used for bandwidht-heavy stuff like video?
They had to do this, focus on markets and products they had a fair chance of not losing too much money on, or they would have gone bankrupt.
slitchfield wrote:Their http://www.skyfire.com/focus-geography-and-skyfire-1-0/ contains confusing mixed messages. On the one hand they say that now that v2.0 is their future, they're going to stop v1.0 and v1.5, so as to focus resources. Fair enough. They then say that v1.0 and v1.5 *will* carry on being supported, but only in certain countries!I guess it's down to there already being Skyfire proxy server farms in those particular countries?
No, it's down to Skyfire not making money, and moving out of the places they are making the least amount of money in a desperate attempt to lower their expenses.
Unregistered wrote:This is a shame really.. I always watch Live Motogp races on it whenever I'm out n about and away from my laptop.. Now there goes my full year subscription on Motogp.com coz I'm always out n about n away from my laptop.. But hey.. they only mentioned Winmo & Symbian devices.. Does that mean Android devices are fully supported everywhere?? Then I should suggest Nokia buy this company now and make Skyfire its default browser(after tweaking some improvements, of course).. c",)
There's no reason for Nokia to buy Skyfire. With the amount of phones Nokia is selling, they would have lost money even faster than Skyfire does today.
I bet Skyfire's primary business plan was to be bought. It clearly failed, so now they have to cut down on their expenses.
I think it's just for version 1 of the browser according to the blog. 2.0 and above should still work fine. thanks, hector graham.
After reading the blog post, I can see the direction where Skyfire wants to go: weaning users off the more 'expensive' 1.0 and 1.5, and moving them to the more profitable 2.0 browser. However, 2.0 is only featured on (guess who?!) Android and iPhone... with support 'coming soon' for Symbian. Nice to see another company who becomes successful off one group of users, and then dumps them for what they think will be the next big thing (I'm looking at you, Palm... hope HP picks your bones clean!).
Yea, expect to see a paid version of Skyfire soon.
Unregistered wrote:I think it's just for version 1 of the browser according to the blog. 2.0 and above should still work fine. thanks, hector graham.
It will work if they can stop losing money at an accelerating rate. At this point it looks like Skyfire will basically be a media viewer on top of the existing/built in browser..
here in india it was workin fine till yesterday..its very sad tat it has stopped workin from today..i hope opera upgrades its mini to support flash content.
Unregistered wrote:here in india it was workin fine till yesterday..its very sad tat it has stopped workin from today..i hope opera upgrades its mini to support flash content.
Not gonna happen. Transcoding video is too expensive.